Too Many Dates
by fantasy1290
Summary: What if Harry's friends tried to help him out in getting a date to the Yule Ball and he suddenly found himself with too many dates? Harry/Padma is main pairing but also Harry/Multi and eventual harem.
1. Chapter 1

Too Many Dates

With the Yule Ball only a few weeks away, Harry was already getting desperate to find himself and Ron a date.

With really his only choice, Cho, going with the Cedric, he just wasn't sure who else to ask.

He confessed this to Hermione one day in the library.

"I'm just worried I'll be able to find a date in time. After finding out that Cho is going with Cedric I just don't really know who I want to go with. It's just so scary to actually go and ask a girl to the ball, you know," He told her.

"Actually I don't know Harry, since I'm a girl. We usually don't do the actual asking," Hermione pointed out.

"I've been asked by several girls by now actually, yet every time Ron was there to say no for me, figuring that I could do so much better. Now I feel rather guilty for doing that, since I imagine the courage they must have had to actually ask me."

"Well Ron has never been good when it comes to women," Hermione answered, sounding somewhat annoyed even as she said it.

"Isn't that the truth?" Harry replied, admitting even to her that this was true.

"I'm not sure that I can help you with Ron, but I can try and see if I can help you with your own problem of finding a date," Hermione told him.

He was about to thank her, when suddenly the Weasley twins came by.

"We couldn't help but overhear," George began.

"That our little Harrikins doesn't have a date," Fred finished for his brother.

"It's alright guys, we're working on it," Hermione informed them.

"We can't just have Harrikins dateless. He's on the Gryffindor quidditch team, and quidditch players always have their pick of girls," George pointed out.

"That's completely ridiculous," Hermione tried to argue.

"Actually she's got a point there George. Need I remind you that you don't actually have a date?" Fred reminded his brother.

"I still haven't decided whether I want to go with either Angelina or Katie," George defended.

"Well Angelina has bigger boobs, but Katie has a better bum," Fred said.

"That's my problem, I can't decide which I like more," George said.

"That's why I asked Alicia, since she's got the total package," Fred argued.

Hermione, now sounding very annoyed at how she felt they were objectifying women said, "I really don't think we need comments from either one of you."

"We were merely trying to help," Fred argued, trying to sound innocent.

"Harry doesn't need that kind of help," Hermione countered.

Fred and George put up their hands as if she had won and George told her, "All right, I guess you've won since you know so much more than us."

Since they appeared to be mocking her, rather than giving her an actual compliment, she tossed a wad of paper at them, missing horribly.

"We can see when we're not wanted, we'll go," Fred said, before the two of them left.

"Sorry I just got rather annoyed there for a second," Hermione apologized, "anyway, you shouldn't need their help, I'm sure you'll find a date."

"Thanks Hermione," Harry answered gratefully before getting up to leave, "well I think I'll try and go find Ron, he's probably still moping around in our dorm room."

Heading off, he still pondered on just what to do to be able to find dates for both him and Ron.

As he looked at the girls that he passed, some actually staring back at him, he wondered just who to ask.

He decided that come what may, he might as well just choose someone.

As he looked down the hallway, he spotted who appeared to at first be Parvati Patil coming from the opposite direction.

Parvati would work. At least he knew her, and she had definitely been dropping hints that she wanted to go with him even as soon as this morning, so she probably didn't have a date yet.

Yet as he got closer, he realized that it was actually her sister Padma, the only way he could tell was because Padma never wore earrings and Parvati always would.

He just took a huge leap and pulled her aside when he got close to her.

"Hey Padma, sorry to bother you, but I was wondering if I could ask you something?" Harry asked.

"Oh you're not bothering me at all Harry," Padma replied, blushing at him.

"Would you happen to know where I can find your sister?" He asked.

She immediately frowned, now seeming suddenly very unhappy, and even he wasn't dense enough to realize why: she had been hoping that he would ask her to the Yule Ball.

In that brief moment, however, he realized that while he had been intending to ask Parvati, he supposed Padma would be just as good, if not better. Unlike her sister, she was less giggly and seemed smarter as well.

He decided to correct the situation and save himself before it was too late.

"What I meant was, I'm trying to find a date for Ron and was wondering if Parvati might be available for him to ask her?" He told her.

She seemed to brighten somewhat and said, "Oh, well in that case I think Parvati is back in the library, and yes she still doesn't have a date. I should probably warn you though that I'm not sure if she'll accept, I don't think she really likes Ron."

"Oh okay," Harry answered, that idea now nixed. At any rate, it looked like he could still accomplish his other objective however.

"Well then, I was wondering if you wanted to at least go to the ball with me?" He asked.

She smiled as wide as a canyon, suddenly looking incredibly happy as she said ecstatically: "I would love to Harry!"

He supposed either her smile was contagious, or even he was very happy that she had said yes, because he smiled wide himself and said, "Great!"

After a moment as they simply stared at one another for a second before he looked down at his feet, feeling a bit awkward as to what to say next, he suddenly realized that he didn't really know how to dance.

"I should probably confess that I don't really know how to dance, and I was wondering if you might be willing to teach me," He told her.

She actually smiled even brighter if it were possible, and said, "I would be more than happy to teach you Harry."

Now he felt like he had hit the jackpot, since Padma was going to teach him, he wouldn't have to feel as awkward for the actual dance.

"How about tomorrow night we meet up in the History classroom, like around 7?" Padma suggested.

"Sure, that would be fine," He answered, giving his consent, "I suppose it's a date then."

He really hadn't been meaning to say date, it had just popped out, but Padma seemed to rather like the word he had used and confirmed it: "It's a date."

After leaving Padma, he headed back to the common room, to try and find Ron, and see if he could coax him into asking some other girl now that he knew that Parvati was unlikely to want to go with him.

When he arrived, he found Ron moping on his bed.

"I can't do this Harry, I can't just simply ask the girl I want to go with to the Yule Ball," He confessed.

"Of course you can," Harry answered, trying to be supportive.

"What if she says no or even just simply stares at me with disgust? I just don't think I could take that kind of rejection," Ron replied.

"You just have to get some courage and go for it," Harry said.

He was about to tell Ron about just getting a date with Padma, but Ron cut him off:

"Will you do it and ask Fleur for me?" Ron begged.

"Fleur might be a bit difficult to get a date with," Harry tried to say gently in order to spare Ron's feelings.

In truth, he would have to say that Fleur was just simply way out of his league, probably the most beautiful girl that would be going to the ball at least according to most of the male wizard population, and he just didn't see why Fleur would ever agree to go with Ron when she could literally choose anyone she wanted.

He chose not to tell Ron this however.

"Please Harry, do it for your best mate, I'll owe you forever if you do this for me. I'll even do your homework for a week," Ron told him.

Personally he felt he would be better off simply doing the homework himself since Ron usually was rather lazy when it came to homework, but he could tell that Ron was rather desperate.

He figured that if he at least asked Fleur first, and she said no or already had a date as he expected her to, perhaps he could then convince him to ask some other girl who might be easier to get a date with.

"All right," He finally agreed.

"Thank you Harry, you're the best!" Ron answered happily, throwing his arms tightly around him.

After finally managing to pry Ron off of him, he went all the way over to the Beauxbatons Carriage to try and talk to Fleur.

It turned out he didn't even need to get all the way over there because he found her over by the lake, appearing to be trying to go for a swim.

Two things went through his mind. First of all, the realization that Fleur was dressed in nothing but a bikini, and second that it was freezing outside and hardly the time for a swim.

Fortunately the second such thought was what caused him to act.

"Do you realize just how cold that water is?" He asked her.

She looked at him and said, "I'm not doing it because I actually enjoy swimming, and I have a warming charm on to protect against the cold. Besides, you might find someday that you'll need to be in water this cold yourself."

He was rather confused by this remark.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"You'll find out," She answered mysteriously.

Deciding not to pry further if she wasn't willing to tell him, he decided to ask her about what he had originally been planning to.

"I was actually wondering if I could ask you something else. You see the Yule Ball is coming up and..." He began.

"I would be happy to go with you Harry," Fleur interjected.

He was so shocked by such a quick reply, he nearly fell over.

Had this happened a couple of hours ago before he asked Padma, this would have no doubt delighted him if he had actually been asking for himself, but now it was a lot more complicated than that, since he already had a date, and he had already been planning to ask for Ron.

She however, mistook his shock for just being surprised she had said yes to him, and answered with: "It's all right Harry, I know that you're a bit surprised that I said yes, but I'm just happy that you actually asked me. I was actually starting to wonder if anyone actually would and I would have to ask someone myself."

"Why would anyone not want to ask you?" He asked in amazement.

"They are all too scared I suppose, figuring that I already have a date or that they simply aren't good enough. It happens a lot to veela or even just beautiful girls for events like this," Fleur confessed, "the worst is when you get people who ask me because they are under my allure and start screaming or doing something stupid such as hitting their girlfriend because they think somehow that will impress me."

"Somebody actually did that?" He asked.

"Poor girl," Fleur confessed before saying, "Well at least you managed to talk to me in a civilized manner and since it is actually a long standing tradition of the tournament for two champions to go with one another I figured I'd just say yes."

Still cognizant of the fact that he already had a date, he wasn't entirely sure just how to explain this to Fleur.

"I'm certainly grateful that you said yes, Fleur...," He began trying to explain.

She cut him off again however and said, "No problem, I suppose I'll see you later then."

Taking a huge breath, she dove underwater while he waited for her to come back up.

When she didn't after a minute however, he started to grow worried until he spotted her again 50 yards away closer to the center of the lake as she came up briefly before going down again.

Since it didn't appear he could talk to her further, he left, trying to come up with how he was going to deal with having two dates, or explain to Ron about what had happened either.

He decided to get some advice from Hermione on just how to handle the situation.

When his efforts to find her still in the library failed however, he decided to try and locate her in the great hall since by then it was starting to get close to dinner time.

As he began to enter however, Lee Jordan pulled him aside.

"I've got great news for you Harry," Lee said ecstatically, "the twins just mentioned that you don't have a date to the Yule Ball. Fortunately I just found one for you."

Lee stared at him expecting to see a huge smile on his face, but instead saw the shocked expression he no doubt had.

"Too stunned even to speak," Lee surmised sounding pleased, "well I made sure you got a good one. Fred said to find one with big knockers, so I got you the biggest I could find. Susan Bones just agreed to go with you."

While Lee was right about Susan having huge boobs, he would never have actually asked her simply because of that. In truth Susan was a rather nice girl, and while he had never taken the time to really get to know her, he would still feel bad having to tell her as well that he already had a date.

"Lee I've already got a date," He informed him.

"The twins told me that you didn't have one though," Lee asked, sounding confused.

"I didn't when they heard, but I already have one now," Harry answered.

"Well she can't be any better or bigger than Susan," Lee countered, sounding unperturbed, "just dump the other girl."

Lee had always done things that rubbed people the wrong way, his most noteworthy being his rather biased commentating of the quidditch matches where he always got into arguments with Professor McGonagall.

While usually a pretty cool guy, he could sometimes take his biased opinions to rather extreme levels and make people angry.

This was no different, since he was extremely annoyed at his answer. He would never dump a girl simply for that reason even if someone like Lee might.

"I'd really appreciate it if you would be more considerate of how you speak about people," Harry said, somehow managing to keep his cool.

Lee simply shrugged and said, "Well suit yourself and simply choose one of them, but I know who I would choose."

Now with Lee having put him in the position of having to tell two girls there had been a mistake and he couldn't go with them, he went inside the great hall to look for Hermione, now even more desperate for some advice.

As he got up to the table however, he didn't find Hermione, but the twins hailed him over and had him sit by them.

"Well Harry I just want you to know that I finally decided to go with Katie. I just asked her, which means that leaves Angelina free for you," George admitted.

Before he could say anything else, George threw a baby carrot at Angelina from somewhat down the table.

She looked up to see who had thrown it at her.

"Oi, Angelina, will you go to the Yule Ball with Harry?" George asked.

She then turned her gaze from George to him, then smiled and said, "Sure."

Angelina then turned back to to talking with her friends, no discussing the date she had just gotten and George then turned to him and said smuggly, "no need to thank me."

Since he had just gotten him into yet another awkward future conversation with a girl, he would never have thanked him.

"I already have a date guys," He informed them.

Their grins faded only slightly as Fred said, "What gives Harry? I thought we agreed the quidditch team would be going together."

"When did we agree to that?" Harry asked.

"Just 10 minutes ago," George admitted.

"I suppose you weren't here for that," Fred pointed out.

Cursing the fact that the twins had to joke around at a time like this, he asked, "Well what do you think I should do since you obviously don't seem to think this is a problem."

"I would hardly consider it a problem assuming that you can get both girls to go with you," George answered.

"Angelina won't mind, we were actually considering sharing either her or Alicia ourselves," Fred stated.

"I'm going with Padma Patil," He answered, already having chosen to go with her.

She was the first one asked and the only one he had actually asked himself so he figured that it was the most fair option.

"That's perfect!" George said ecstatically, "she's a twin and twins are always up for sharing!"

"Trust me we know as twins ourselves," Fred admitted with a smile on his face as if remembering a treasured experience.

Deciding to disregard this confession, he said, "I'm not sure if Padma will feel the same way."

"Well there's only one way to find out," George replied, "personally we wouldn't mind at all being asked that question."

Since it appeared that the only help that the twins would give that he try and convince both Padma and Angelina to engage in a threesome, he decided to leave after grabbing some food to take with him.

He headed back to the common room and see if he could finally find Hermione there and if not, go talk to Ron.

When he got there, Hermione was indeed in the common room sitting reading a book.

"I've been looking all over for you," He answered.

"So was I actually before I finally decided to just wait for you to show up," Hermione confessed, "I've got great news."

"Let me guess, you found me a date to the Yule Ball," Harry answered.

"How did you know?" She asked.

"Lucky guess," He answered, deciding to at least find out who it was first before he said just how he had guessed.

"Well I actually got you a date with Hannah Abbott," Hermione told him.

Hermione mistook his look of annoyance at having to tell Hannah he couldn't go with her for something else.

"Don't look at me like that Harry," Hermione cautioned, "I thought you would be better than that. I know that Hannah is a bit overweight, I figured that you would be able to look past that. She really is a great girl, she's just a bit more of a great girl than most guys would prefer."

Hermione was correct in her statement. Hannah was a rather great girl, but unfortunately due to her weight she had earned the nickname Hefty Hannah. Most guys never gave her much attention on account of it.

"I'm sure she is a great girl and I would love to be able to take her to the ball but I can't since I already have a date," He confessed.

"What?" Hermione asked in shock, "how?"

"It's kind of a long story, and I'm not being entirely accurate when I use the word date," He replied.

"Tell me everything," she urged.

So he did.

He told her everything, holding nothing back in explaining his now very difficult situation.

She was certainly surprised and by the time he finished, even Hermione seemed to be rendered speechless.

"So what do you think I should do?" He asked.

"To be honest Harry, I really just don't know since you are going to be causing a lot of hurt feelings," Hermione told him as she thought about what exactly he should do.

Finally however she said, "Well I suppose I should look at it based on how I would feel. If you had actually asked me, and not last minute or out of desperation, I would feel rather flattered, and I certainly would feel disappointed when you told me you couldn't for whatever reason."

"You would?" Harry asked.

"Of course Harry. You're my friend and if you ever asked me out, I would at least want to see how the date went and give you a sporting chance," Hermione admitted, "at any rate I would imagine that no matter how you told the other girls they would be at the very least disappointed. Since I know that several of them currently have crushes on you, it will be even worse."

"Wait a minute, who has a crush on me?" Harry asked.

"Well just about every girl in the school," Hermione admitted blushing, "and not just because you're the boy-who-lived, you're a pretty good looking guy who's got a hero image, and everyone loves a hero."

"Great, I find that out after all this," Harry answered grimly.

"It's probably really flattering and exciting to go with you to most of them," Hermione replied, "I know that Hannah was super excited when I asked her if she would like to go with you."

"I'm sure that Susan and Hannah already know by now that I'm supposedly going with both of them," Harry responded.

"We can't really help that, I'm sure they will be understanding at least once we explain it to them however," Hermione informed him, "now then let's see what we can do. First of all, I want to know if you are sure that Padma is the one that you want to go with?"

"Well I honestly wouldn't mind going with any of them, but since Padma was the first one asked, I think it's only fair," Harry told her.

"All right, well then I suppose what we could do is I could help you by telling the rest of them the truth," Hermione offered.

"I really think it would be best if I did it personally," Harry stated.

Hermione nodded, seeming to approve.

They discussed what he would do and say at length and he was just starting to feel more confident that he could actually resolve the issue when suddenly they heard a commotion as Ron barged in through the portrait hole.

"YOU!" Ron yelled angrily as he pointed an accusing finger at him, "you scum sucking filth. Here I am thinking that my best friend is so great, going to ask Fleur for me to go to the Yule Ball with and instead I find out that you just wanted her all to yourself. How could you do that to me?"

"Ron let me explain," Harry tried to say.

"Explain this," Ron said, punching him right in the jaw.

He hadn't been expecting Ron of all people to actually punch him and so he failed to actually dodge the blow.

The blow itself wasn't as bad as something that even Dudley used to do to him, but nevertheless it still was painful.

Ron stepped in to deliver yet another punch, but this time he was restrained by several other students including his own brothers Fred and George who had just gotten back from dinner.

"Just what was that for Ron?" Fred asked even as Ron struggled to break free.

"He stole my girl!" Ron yelled.

"I wasn't aware you even had a girl Ron," George pointed out.

"If you did, we certainly would have known about it and teased you," Fred answered.

"Look if this is about Hermione, don't worry, I'm pretty sure they aren't going with one another," George replied.

"I'm not talking about that bushy haired freak of nature!" Ron continued to shout.

Harry totally understood Ron being angry at him, but he drew the line at insulting Hermione as well.

"It was an accident Ron, one I plan to rectify. I promise it isn't what you think. You are right to be angry but leave Hermione out of this," Harry cautioned.

"You son of a mudblood, I don't want to hear anything you have to say," Ron countered as he spat at him.

Before he could saying anything else however, Professor McGonagall came in, being followed by a first year girl.

"I'm told that someone was evidently trying to start a fight," McGonagall said.

Several people pointed at Ron, and she turned to him and asked:

"Mr. Weasley, what is the meaning of this? Physical violence or violence of any kind is strictly prohibited which I'm sure you know," McGonagall informed him harshly.

"Harry deserved it," Ron spat.

"What would cause you to hit Mr. Potter? Last time I checked you were once again friends," McGonagall pointed out.

Fred and George must have been holding Ron too loosely at that moment because Ron made another run at Harry and this time managed to escape until he got right in front of him again.

Before he could get another punch in, Fred grabbed his leg and Ron tried to shake him off even as he tried to hit Harry.

Unfortunately he had also gotten rather close to Professor McGonagall, and in his wild punches, he actually clipped her right in the gut.

With a cry of pain, McGonagall got the wind knocked out of her for a second before immediately using her wand to stun Ron, who went down.

"That will be quite enough," McGonagall answered as she managed to regain her composure, "it appears that Mr. Weasley is a danger to his fellow classmates and even to me as well. I will be taking him and keeping him locked up while I decide on his punishment."

She levitated his still unconscious body and took him away, followed by the Weasley twins who insisted on accompanying her.

When the crowd that had by now gathered began to ask what happened, Hermione suggested they go up to his room.

He followed her up to find that the room was now currently vacant other than the two of them.

As they sat down on his bed, she checked his jaw.

"Are you sure you don't want to go to the hospital wing?" She asked.

"It's fine," He answered.

She nevertheless put her hand gently on his jaw to test it herself.

It still stung but it wasn't that bad. He had felt much worse.

She gazed right at him, concern across her face as he gazed back.

Then suddenly, without warning, she leaned in and kissed him.

It was totally unexpected and brief enough that he was still processing just what she had done long before he realized that the kiss actually felt good.

She seemed just as surprised as he did, and said, "I'm so sorry Harry, I don't even know what I was thinking."

"It's okay," He mumbled.

"I guess I was just caught up in the moment or something, I didn't mean to do anything," Hermione told him anxiously.

"Don't worry about it," He said, despite the fact that he was still thinking about him having had his first kiss and it had been with Hermione.

He had always thought of Hermione as one of his best friends, but looking at her he suddenly realized that she was rather pretty and perhaps if he wasn't already starting to date Padma or who knew who else, he might have said to her, but as it was, he was force to simply let the matter be.

As yet another reason, Hermione tried to change the subject by saying, "Well I suppose you should know that I'm going to the Yule Ball with Viktor Krum."

Simply adding to his list of surprises for the day, he was able to recover quickly from this, and exclaimed, "Wow Krum? Really? Well then I'm very happy for you Hermione, Krum is a lucky man."

She smiled, apparently quite pleased at his reaction, although in truth had he found this out this morning, he likely would have reacted quite differently.

"Thank you Harry, Padma is a lucky girl to have you as well," Hermione said.

He sighed and said, "Well I'm not really sure if Padma will take me once she finds out I've got all these other dates."

"I'm sure she'll understand and the other girls too," Hermione comforted, "after seeing Ron's reaction though, I wouldn't put it off. I'd go talk to all of the girls right now. It will be better than them finding out themselves or worse each other."

"Okay," He said, wincing his pain as she touched his cheek again.

"On second thought, why don't I go get help and gather them together so you can handle it one fell swoop while you go to the hospital wing," Hermione recommended.

"I'm fine Hermione," He tried to say, "I've had much worse."

"I'm sure, but it doesn't mean you didn't need medical attention then too," Hermione pointed out.

Since Hermione had already made such a generous offer gathering the girls together, he made no further objections and went to the hospital wing.

As Madame Pomfrey fixed him up, asking no questions beyond the answer that he gave her, simply that some guy had gotten mad and hit him, she said, "Mr. Potter, I do believe you are the 2nd most accident prone student I have ever had."

"Really? Who managed to beat me?" He asked.

"Me," a girl's voice responded.

As he looked over at her, he noticed a girl with blonde hair and a rather dreamy expression currently on her face sitting a couple of beds down with an ice pack on her chin.

She appeared to be around his age and she looked somewhat familiar, but he couldn't for the life of him remember her name, if he had ever even heard it.

"I'm Luna Lovegood," She responded in answer to his unasked question.

"Nice to meet you," He greeted.

Madame Pomfrey finished fixing his jaw with her wand and he no longer felt pain.

She turned to work on Luna who was also quickly fixed up.

"Aren't you going to ask me to the Yule Ball?" Luna asked unexpectedly.

He nearly choked. Wow was this girl rather brave.

Even still, he seriously did not need any more dates.

"I'm sorry Luna, no offense or anything, but I've already got a date," He admitted.

"Oh I know, quite a few I understand," She told him.

He figured that news apparently traveled fast around Hogwarts.

"So aren't you going to ask me anyway?" Luna asked again.

"If you already know I have more than one date why are you trying to get me to go with you?" He asked.

"Since I know you'll end up going with me," She stated, as if this was fact.

"I really don't think I can handle that, I've already got to tell all those other girls I can't go with them," Harry said.

"Why is that?" Luna asked.

"I can't go with all of them," He informed her.

"Why not?" Luna asked, undeterred.

He was rather put off by this girl and wasn't entirely sure how to respond but finally said, "Since that would be rather ridiculous."

"It doesn't sound very ridiculous to me. I think it will be a lot of fun when we all go," Luna replied.

"You seem rather confident about this," Harry surmised.

"I'm as confident about it as I'm sure that crumple horned snorkacks are real," Luna told him.

"What are those?" He asked.

Luna smiled and said, "Don't worry, you'll help me find one one day, and you'll know exactly what they are then even if you don't believe me now."

He was once again unsure how to answer, and Luna decided to break the silence.

"So once all the girls say yes, you can come find me again and I'll go with you to the ball," Luna told him as she got up and left.

Shaking his head, he mentally prepared himself to face a room of upset witches.


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Note: After some honest reviews, which I do rather appreciate, I've decided to take this story in a totally different direction and redo the 2nd chapter and make it just a fun read, at least I'm going to try to anyway. Harry will just be dating because he enjoys dating not because of any social expectations or anything else, just as any teenage boy might normally act in Britain. It will however still focus very much on the title, Too Many Dates.

Chapter 2

As Harry entered the room full of girls, he was expecting to find them all gathered together in a circle plotting to kill him instead.

He found instead, that while looking upset, at least they didn't appear to have a picture of him on a dart board while they waited for him to arrive or pull out their wands as soon as he came in.

Deciding that this was at least a nominally good sign, he addressed them:

"Now I know that you girls are probably upset..."

"I was mad at you until I found out from Hermione just what had happened," Susan confirmed, "I can't really find a reason to say that this is your fault."

Each of the girls nodded in agreement and Harry let out a long exhale of breath he had been holding ever since this whole incident had began. Or at least he would have held if it was possible to do so that long without dying of oxygen deprivation.

"I really like you and I really was looking forward to going with you Harry," Hannah said sounding super disappointed, "now it appears I won't get a date at all."

"Don't say that, I myself would have happily gone with you had you been the only girl I was going with," Harry declared.

"Really?" Hannah asked, sounding somewhat skeptical, "you'd date a fat girl?"

"You say that like that's a bad thing," Harry commented.

She seemed surprised by this answer and said, "isn't it?"

"To be perfectly honest, I tend to like all girls in all shapes and sizes, nor am I really sure just what body type I like best. To me, you're just as beautiful as any other girl and you have plenty to attract my attention with," Harry told her.

"Excuse us if we have a bit of skepticism to that," Hermione said.

Hannah blushed at the compliment and Angelina stated, smiling, "I know that he definitely likes black girls at least. I've caught him staring at me more than once."

"Thank you so much for backing me up like that," Harry answered sarcastically, "and I think you're an attractive girl too Hermione, even if I just barely started realizing it. What can I say? I'm rather dense."

"No you're not dense Harry, Ron is dense, but you're just a guy," Hermione reminded him.

"I'm going to use a line I already used and say, you say that like that's a bad thing," Harry replied.

"I don't mean it like that, but you are still a guy and my best friend," Hermione responded.

"So if we're done talking about whether or not Harry is a guy or not, I'd like to figure out just which one of us Harry is planning to take to the ball," Padma interrupted.

Harry had decided that in this case and in most cases for that matter, honesty was the best policy.

"I'm going to be honest with all of you as I feel you can all handle it and I think deserve it," Harry began, "by now, you should all know that either I asked you or someone else asked you for me, thinking I still didn't have a date. This was not orchestrated by me, nor was I simply trying to pull a prank as this would truly be suicidal if I had."

"You got that right," Fleur quipped.

Everyone laughed at that as he then answered, "I'm hopeful that I can avoid death or dismemberment, or at least until I get good life insurance."

All the girls blinked and stared at him in confusion not being from the muggle world, other than Hermione who let out a small giggle at his joke.

Realizing they wouldn't know what life insurance was, he corrected himself and said, "Sorry, I'm trying to use humor as a defense mechanism and it isn't working out so well. What I meant was that I would hope that we can manage to move past this and come to a fair agreement concerning this matter. I'd like to hear all of your opinions."

"Then I'll start and say that I'd really like to go with you," Padma told him.

"I think all of us do or we wouldn't have agreed not to go with him in the first place," Fleur observed.

"Of course, but what I meant was that this would mean a lot to me if we could go. I was the one you originally chose and asked out and we already had a date set for tomorrow," Padma reminded him.

"I had actually originally planned on deciding to take you as I felt it was the most fair choice," Harry replied, "however I'm not going to say it was completely fair and if anyone else has any other ideas I would be happy to hear them."

"How about we have a contest to decide who gets you?" Angelina said.

"Oh great, another contest I'm sure to lose, what were you thinking? Beauty contest or athletic contest?" Hannah asked.

"It was merely an idea," Angelina insisted.

"Actually I think Angelina might have a good idea," Hermione stated.

"I don't think we should be having any beauty contests," Fleur surprisingly said, "that really wouldn't be fair as beauty really isn't the only reason you should want to go out with someone."

"I agree which is why I propose that Harry go out with all of you at least once this week and decide who he'd prefer to go with. Otherwise make sure you are available to be asked by someone else if he doesn't pick you," Hermione suggested.

"I like that idea," Susan admitted.

"So do I," Fleur agreed.

"Well if all of you are okay with that, I'm happy to go out on individual dates first with all of you. To be honest it will help me decide what I really do like in a girl since I still have no real idea," Harry confessed.

"Just as long as you are willing to give all of us a fair shot," Hannah reminded him.

"Of course," Harry answered, "well I already have a date with Padma tomorrow, so who should go next?"

"We can draw wands," Angelina suggested.

Harry was a bit confused as to what she meant as he asked, "Draw wands?"

"It's a game wizards use to determine who goes first. We have someone else not playing gather up our wands and then put them in their hand. With our eyes closed we then have to choose the first wand we touch, no matter if it is our wand or not. We then choose order based off of the shortest to the longest wands."

"I'll do it since I'm the only one not trying to go with him," Hermione recommended.

Each of the girls handed her their wands and then Hermione mixed them up in her hand and then let them pick one with their eyes closed.

Fleur accidentally reached too far forward and nearly grabbed Hermione's chest instead, but gratefully Hermione corrected her as the girl then grabbed a wand.

After the order was determined with Susan grabbing her own wand which was the shortest, followed by Hannah with Angelina's that was the second shortest, then Angelina with Fleur's, and finally Fleur with Hannah's which was the longest.

With the order decided, Harry knew it was now up to him to decide just what they would be doing for each of their dates.

Padma he knew he would be learning to dance with, so she was covered but the rest he wasn't really sure about.

TOOMANYTOOMANYTOOMANY

He decided he should make sure he had some sort of meal made for each of his dates so he went inside the school kitchens to see if the house elves would let him cook there and give him the food he would require.

As soon as he entered however Dobby immediately noticed him and quickly hurried over to where he was standing.

"The great Harry Potter is visiting Dobby?" Dobby asked in excitement.

Since he had been intending to see if he was here anyway, he smiled and said, "Yes."

"Look at Dobby's new socks," Dobby informed him.

They were two mismatching pairs, one green and one red.

"That's great Dobby," Harry replied, "so what have you been up to?"

"Dobby is working hard for Dumby," Dobby told him.

Harry laughed and said, "that's a good name for him, but I have a question for you. I was wondering if I could use the kitchens here to make some food for some dates I have?"

"Dates?" Dobby asked sounding confused, "Why would you want dates? They taste nasty and Dobby would only eat those if he planned to punish himself. Harry deserves better food that Dobby can make you than nasty dates."

"Not that kind of date Dobby," Harry replied, laughing again, "although dates don't taste too bad to me. What I mean is I'm going to be having a few romantic meals with a few different girls."

A sly look passed Dobby's expression as he realized just what he wanted to do.

"Harry is courting now?" Dobby asked.

"If that is what you call it, yes," Harry answered.

"Dobby would be happy to make food and be a waiter on Harry's dates," Dobby replied.

"Well there are going to be at least 5 of them, with different girls," Harry said.

"Dobby will make dinner for Harry and his girls everyday forever if he wants Dobby to," Dobby replied, sounding super excited.

Owing to the house elf's enthusiasm, Harry was tempted to agree but finally said:

"I was actually planning on making food for them myself," Harry informed him.

Dobby looked practically scandalized, "It is not proper for a wizard to make food himself when a house elf can do it."

He was a bit torn as it would be more special if he helped make it, but he supposed if he let Dobby cover this part it would give him more time with the rest of the dates.

"All right," Harry agreed, "so I was also wondering if you knew of any good places to have a date."

The elf's eyes lit up as he said, "Actually Dobby knows of a place, super special and secret that only us house elves know about. It's called the Come and Go Room or the Room of Requirement and the room gives you anything you want to be inside it. Dobby can show you right where it is."

It was already getting kind of late that night, but he decided that if it wasn't too far away he could make it back in time for curfew.

He was told about how to activate the room as he thought, "I want a room that is perfect for dancing and eating a semi romantic dinner."

As the door finally appeared, he opened it to find a room that looked just like a dance hall, or at least what he would have guessed a dance hall was supposed to look like.

The room had dim lighting but with a certain brighter light illuminating the back of the room where a small table with candles already lit lying on it stood.

Romantic sounding jazz music emanated through the room.

He smiled and said, "This is perfect Dobby!"

Dobby looked somewhat bashful at the compliment and said, "It was nothing."

This would save him a ridiculous amount of time on fixing up each of the dates.

"Even so, you're a lifesaver," Harry declared.

He couldn't wait to have dates in here!

TOOMANYTOOMANYTOOMANY

Just before 7 when he and Padma had planned for him to pick her up, he headed over to the Ravenclaw common room.

When he got there, he spotted a 3rd year girl just about to head in.

"Hey would you mind letting Padma Patil know I'm waiting for her here?" Harry asked her.

The girl, who was small but in a rather cute kind of way blushed and said, "Sure."

As she went in, he nervously went through how he was going to go through with the date.

Make small talk, be courteous, nice, and complementary, avoid belching or anything offensive, especially that Indian joke that Ron had told awhile back...

No, that certainly wasn't helping, he thought to himself. I could tell other jokes though, girls like to laugh right...

Oh no! What if she doesn't laugh at my jokes? Then what do I do?

As he was currently stressing over things, he almost didn't even notice when Padma finally emerged.

"I'm ready," Padma announced.

As he looked over at the sound of her voice, he stared in shock at just how good Padma looked.

She was wearing a formal white evening gown that contrasted very well with her dark, caramel skin.

Her beautiful shiny black hair was let loose and cascaded down to the bottom of her butt, which as he had noticed before, was a rather nice looking butt.

"Well how do I look?" She asked as he still stared at her.

"You look hot!" Harry replied, before blushing at what he'd said.

She blushed too and said, "Thanks, you look rather hot too Harry."

He had tried to clean himself up a bit, with Hermione's help of course. She'd even managed to tidy up his hair using this hair potion stuff she'd found.

"Sorry," Harry apologized after standing there trying to think of what he was supposed to do next, "can I take your arm?"

She offered it to him and they headed off.

After a minute she said, "You know, you don't have to feel so nervous Harry. I know this is your first date and it's mine as well, we'll probably end up making plenty of mistakes, so just don't worry about it."

He tried to relax as he tried to think up a conversation to start with her, the one he had planned on, now suddenly gone from his memory.

"So what's it like being a woman?" Harry asked.

As soon as he said this, he immediately cursed himself. Why oh why had he asked that?

She looked over at him and seeing the look of horror on his face, she had the gall to actually laugh.

"You know Harry that isn't something guys usually ask on a first date," Padma reminded him, "but judging from your expression you already knew that."

"I'm sorry, I'm just really nervous," Harry admitted.

"Trust me, I'm nervous too Harry,She confided before taking pity on him and suggested, "How about you ask me how school is going?"

"Okay, how is school going for you?" Harry asked.

She politely responded as they struck up a conversation about classes and the like.

When they finally got to the Room of Requirement, things were going much better, or at least he wasn't having to apologize or make a fool out of himself every 5 seconds.

As they entered the room however, Padma's breath was taken away as she stared around in wonder.

"Harry!" Padma exclaimed, "this is amazing!"

"An amazing place for an amazing girl," Harry replied.

Yes! Score one point for him! He thought, having at least done something right.

He guided her over to their table yet she still stood as if she was waiting for something.

Still wondering what he was missing, she finally had to tell him to pull out her chair for her.

He did so, feeling slightly embarrassed again and then she sat down.

"So what are our plans for the evening?" She asked.

"I thought we'd start out with dinner and then practice dancing afterwards," He suggested.

"Okay," She agreed, "so where's the dinner?"

"Dobby," Harry asked.

Immediately Dobby appeared right in front of them.

"What will Harry and his date be having this evening?" Dobby asked.

"Dobby you already know what we will be having," Harry reminded him.

"Yes but Dobby would be happy to make whatever Harry and date wants!" Dobby declared.

"What are we having Harry?" Padma asked.

"Well I asked Parvati and she said your favorite food was Chicken Tikka Masala so I figured we'd have that so Dobby could make the food beforehand and we wouldn't have to wait," Harry replied.

"Oh, well that's fine too then," Padma replied.

"Dobby will bring the drinks and then the food," Dobby told them.

He popped out leaving them alone for a second.

"We really could get Dobby to make something else if you'd like, I'm sure he wouldn't mind" Harry said.

"It really is fine Harry, that really is my favorite food," Padma informed him.

Dobby came back with the drinks and then the food and they began eating.

It really was very good, and he was amazed that Dobby actually knew how to make it since it was clearly not a British dish.

She asked him as they ate about how the tournament was going and he decided to regale her about the story of the 1st task.

"That must have been so terrifying facing a dragon," Padma commented.

"It was, although considering how well this date is going I think I'd rather face the dragon again," Harry replied.

"I think it's going great," Padma told him, "and to be honest I'm rather glad that you're nervous. Normally I've been the one nervous around you."

"How so?" He asked.

"The truth is I've had a crush on you ever since I first saw you clear back at the beginning of first year," She confessed, "it wasn't even that you were the boy-who-lived since I grew up in India before that and really hadn't even heard of you. I just thought you were really cute and in my first memory of you on my way off the train, do you remember what you told me?"

He shook his head, he couldn't actually remember anything of the sort, although he had been a bundle of nerves then, much like he was now.

"I was actually super nervous and I could tell so were you but when I was struggling to carry my luggage because there weren't any carts left for me to push it with and nobody was willing to help me, you offered me yours, even though you already had all of yours on it. Then you ended up carrying yours instead. It was a small act of kindness, but it still stuck with me, and over the years those feelings for you have only grown."

"I never knew that," Harry confessed.

"You probably wouldn't since I've always felt rather shy around you since I figured you'd never like me back. There are so many other girls much more attractive than me trying to get your attention, and I figured you'd always ask them out or at the very least my twin sister Parvati. She's always been much more outgoing and is in the same house as you and I know she likes you too, nor is she subtle about letting you know that."

"I like Parvati, but I'm certainly glad that I asked you out instead of her," Harry told her.

"I'm glad too, that at least we'll get this one date. I'll treasure it always," Padma replied.

His eyebrows rose as he said, "What makes you think that we'll only have this one date?"

"You and I both know I can't compete with those other girls," Padma insisted, "they are all more attractive than me."

"What? Why would you say that?" Harry exclaimed.

"Name one thing that I have that they don't," Padma asked.

He wasn't expecting such a question, nor was he prepared with a quick answer so he chose the first thing that popped into his head.

"Your hair," He replied, "none of them have such long, beautiful black hair as you."

"My hair?" Padma questioned, "I wouldn't have pegged you for a hair man."

"Well my name is "Harry" Potter," He reminded her.

She laughed and said, "You're so cute and funny Harry, I love you."

As soon as she said it though, her eyes grew big as she tried to apologize, "I am so, so sorry, I...I didn't mean that, that wasn't what I meant, I..."

Now it was finally his turn to be on the receiving end of watching his date be super embarrassed and he grinned at her discomfiture before cutting her off and said, "It's okay, like you said at the beginning, we're both bound to make mistakes this being both our first date."

She smiled at him gratefully and he decided to change the subject.

"So would you like to practice dancing now?" He suggested, both of them already having finished eating.

She nodded and he went and took her hand before going out onto the floorspace that was meant for dancing.

He admittedly wasn't all that great of a dancer yet, Professor McGonagall had had a few lessons but not enough for him to actually get good at it.

Nevertheless, Padma was patient with him, even when he stepped on her toes a few times.

By the end of the date, they were both exhausted from dancing, but he was feeling significantly more confident about his dancing abilities.

He took her back to the entrance of the Ravenclaw common room.

"I had a lot of fun Harry," Padma replied.

"So did I," Harry answered, "maybe we could do this again sometime."

She winced and said, "Don't you already have dates for the next 4 days and then pick one to go to the Ball with?"

"I don't know who I'll pick to go to the Yule Ball with, maybe you, I can't say, but I do know I definitely want to go out on another date with you no matter what," Harry responded.

After smiling she said, "I'd really like that Harry."

He wasn't really sure what to do next, whether he was supposed to just wave goodbye or whatever, but to his amazement, Padma leaned in and kissed him.

It was only for a second, but he still felt it all through his body. It felt really nice, good even.

Pulling away, she gave him one last glorious smile and then slipped inside, leaving him alone or so he thought.

He was just thinking that that date had not been perfect but he had certainly done something right if she had kissed him at the end, when a voice broke his thought process.

"It looks like you two had a lot of fun."

Turning to look at the sound of the voice, he found Luna currently standing just to the left of him.

"You saw that?" Harry asked.

"I see a lot of things," Luna answered, "to what were you referring to?"

"The kiss," Harry replied.

"Right, the kiss," Luna said, "it wasn't a very long kiss, but you'll have many more longer kisses later."

"With Padma? So you think I'll start dating her then?" Harry asked.

"Yes, with her and with everyone else too," Luna said.

"Just who's everyone else, you're being a bit vague?" Harry reminded her.

"Whoever else you want everyone to include," Luna answered.

"So you still think I'm going to end up with all those girls and you huh?" Harry queried.

"I think you'll end up with everyone," Luna said, once again being annoyingly vague.

"Forget it," Harry finally said, giving up on getting out of the rather odd girl just what she meant. If she didn't want to tell him, then fine.

"So when is my date with you Harry?" Luna asked.

"I wasn't aware that I had asked you out on one," Harry reminded her, "besides I've got dates all this week until Saturday."

"Then you can pick me up on Saturday," Luna replied calmly.

Once again caught off guard by what she said, he wasn't prepared to immediately answer but he decided why not? He kind of liked her despite her strange manner and she wasn't unattractive either. She seemed more than a little crazy, but crazy people could be fun too.

"All right, you've won me over. I'll pick you up here at 7 on Saturday," He answered.

"Yippee!" Luna cheered rushing forward and giving him a hug, "this is so exciting!"

Well this is going to be a fun, he thought. He would be going from never having been on a date to six all in one week.

If it was possible to have too many dates, he would know by the end of it.

Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed this chapter and the direction the story is taking much better, otherwise too bad, since I'm going with this one and I like it more. It should be more fun for me to write and you to read. Also I had Harry act very nervous and make some mistakes as it was his first date but he'll improve a great deal as the story continues. Please review.


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Note: There is a definite general plot to this story, but instead of coming right out with everything, I'm leaving tons of little hints. It should be more fun with you trying to figure out just what is going to happen. Luna for example and just whether she is crazy, partially right, or totally right.

Chapter 3

The next day before breakfast, Harry was headed down to the great hall when he was pulled into a classroom as he walked by.

Instead of it being Hermione, as he had expected, he was surprised to find that it was Rita Skeeter.

"Harry, I was wondering if I might have a word with you?" She asked.

"I thought that Dumbledore banned you from being inside the castle unless the Daily Prophet finally fired you and you got a job as an assistant caretaker?" Harry suggested.

She frowned but then said, "I've gotten full access from the Ministry as long as I promise to only give out good publicity."

Personally Harry thought the Ministry were idiots for thinking that Rita Skeeter of all people would only give "good publicity" but it would have to be something he found out about later.

"So what do you want then?" Harry asked, not bothering to hide just how annoyed he was.

"I couldn't help but hear about your little dating dilemma. Five girls all vying for your heart?" She asked.

"Six now actually but I hardly see how it is any of your business," Harry pointed out.

"I'm afraid it's now the entire wizarding world's business as you'll see reflected in today's paper," She told him.

"You had it published in the newspaper!" Harry exclaimed angrily.

"People have the right to know Harry, and I must say, it is some of the juiciest piece of news I've gotten in a long time. I'm betting its one of the highest selling newspapers the Daily Prophet has ever had," Rita claimed.

"Why would people care that much about my love life?" Harry asked.

"People love learning about what celebrity is dating who, and you're pretty much one of the biggest celebrities not just in Britain but in the wizarding world at large," Rita replied, "everyone is going to want to know about just who you choose."

"I'd say that should be more personal," Harry answered.

"Think of all that publicity though Harry. If you would let me do interviews on each of your dates to see how they went, we could do a week long series at the very least!" Rita told him.

"I'm sorry but first of all, I don't trust you, and I certainly don't like you," Harry responded, "so I must respectfully decline."

Not wanting to stay any longer he attempted to leave but she called out before he left, "I'll find a way somehow. People aren't going to be satisfied until they learn the truth."

Still ignoring her, he managed to make it to breakfast, only to find everyone in the great hall currently huddled around copies of the Daily Prophet.

Hermione however seemed to have already read it, and scooted a bit in order to give him room.

"Did you already read today's paper?" Harry asked.

"Yes," She answered.

"So what did it say?" He asked.

She seemed quite flustered as she seemed to be worried about his reaction so he decided to explain himself a bit.

"Don't worry, I already got the gist of it. Rita tried stopping me on my way over here," Harry told her.

Somewhat relieved at hearing that, she said, "I suppose it wasn't too bad, considering Rita. She actually cast you in a rather favorable light considering. If anything it made you seem like quite the catch."

He sighed and said, "Well I suppose it was going to be found out eventually. Most of the school knew already."

"I'm sorry Harry," Hermione said, "well if it hadn't been Rita I'm sure it would have been someone else so I can't really be too mad at her for it in this case. Who I'm really mad at is Padma."

"Padma? What did Padma do wrong?" Harry answered.

"Didn't you know?" Hermione asked, "Padma clearly must have divulged how the date went to Rita afterwards. I know it wasn't you, so it has to have been her."

"Why would you assume Padma would do that?" Harry asked.

"The article mentions things in the date only someone who was there would have known," Hermione answered.

"Let me see the article," Harry demanded as he interrupted a couple of 3rd year girls who had a copy.

They handed it over to him, giggling at the same time, and he started reading:

"Too Many Dates For Harry Potter!" rang the headlines, complete with an attractive picture of him smiling seductively, adopting a pose he was sure he had never had in his life.

Continuing to read, it read:

Harry Potter, our resident young teenage heartthrob is proving to be quite the lady's man indeed, having not one but five dates to the Yule Ball. In an effort to find a date worthy of him, Mr. Potter enlisted the help of his friends in order to find the best girl in all the school. Mr. Potter or Prince Charming as some of you readers may come to recognize him as, was presented with five choices: Padma Patil, the exotic Indian who traveled far to find love, Susan Bones, the sweet yet very curvy redhead, Hannah Abbott, the fat girl who remains the desperate underdog, Angelina Johnson, the tall, dark, and athletic Amazon, or Fleur Delacour, the French veela beauty who attracts the eyes of every man she comes into contact with?

Now our young hero is tasked with the monumental task of choosing just which one should win the honor of going with him to the Yule Ball and made into a princess, at least for one night. Each will be given just one date before the ball for him to then decide who he will choose.

Will it be Padma, Susan, Hannah, Angelina, or Fleur?

Mr. Potter's first date was with Ms. Padma Patil. Most readers would automatically assume that perhaps Ms. Patil might not have a chance, but that turned out not to be the case.

Mr. Potter was warm and funny, and Ms. Patil, far more beautiful than might have been expected...

He stopped reading there now that he knew that Padma had definitely told Rita what had happened.

Scanning down to the bottom of the rather sappy article, filled with some truths, but also with plenty of extra things he couldn't remember ever saying but would have sounded really gallant, things that he probably should have said, but didn't.

At least she hadn't said anything about the kiss, as even she had evidently kept that to herself.

Now quite angry that Padma would divulge what had occurred on their date to a reporter, he headed over to the Ravenclaw table to try and find her, only to discover that she wasn't there.

"Are you looking for Padma?" asked Padma's friend, Su Li.

"Yes," Harry replied.

"She thought you might want to talk to her and didn't want to make a scene. She promised to explain it to you in the History classroom privately if you wanted to go talk to her," Su told him.

Heading over to the History classroom then, he found her there inside waiting for him.

When she saw him, with a small degree of fear on her face she said, "First of all Harry, I just want to say I never said those things to Rita or anyone, I promise."

"Then how come she knew about them?" Harry demanded, "I sure didn't say anything to her."

"I knew you didn't," Padma answered, "you're not that kind of guy."

"Well if it wasn't me and it wasn't you, then who was it?" Harry asked.

"I don't know, maybe she had a listening charm on the room or something," Padma suggested.

He felt like a freight train had just hit him in the face. Of course! He totally wouldn't put it past Rita to do just that.

"I suppose that's possible," Harry reluctantly admitted.

"I'm so sorry," Padma said.

"I'm sorry too for blaming you like that," Harry responded.

"It's okay, anyone would have assumed so," Padma told him.

"You didn't," Harry reminded her.

"I think it speaks more about your integrity and my ability to trust you than my assumption you didn't say anything," Padma answered.

She reached over and gave him a hug, which he returned.

"I suppose I'm just going to have to be more vigilant with my other dates," Harry replied, "perhaps sweep the room for spells or something, or have Dobby do it, I'll bet he'd be pretty good at that sort of thing."

"What makes you say that?" Padma asked.

"Since he used to be the Malfoy's house elf. They most likely even trained him to detect listening spells, something I have no doubt Lucius would have valued," Harry told her.

"He used to be the Malfoys?" Padma queried.

"It's a long story," Harry responded.

She chose to disregard her question then and then asked, "So what were you planning on doing for your date with Susan tonight?"

It wasn't a bad question but one he would rather he kept private between himself and Susan, he'd already experienced first hand what could happen when the events of your date were broadcast to everyone.

To make matters worse, it would not have benefited her to know. He could see the look of anguish and distress upon her face as she couldn't hide the fact that she was worried that he would pick a different girl.

Padma at least would be very upset if he chose anyone else, something that weighed heavily in his consideration of just who to take.

"I think it would be best if I just kept that to myself," Harry finally said, "I hope you understand."

"I do," She said, sighing, "I suppose I'm just a little bit jealous that's all."

"I know," Harry answered.

A pained look came across her face as she said, "Is it that obvious?"

"Yes," Harry replied truthfully.

To his surprise and without warning she leaned in and kissed him again.

"Sorry," She apologized after drawing away.

"What is there to apologize for?" Harry asked, "I'm definitely not going to complain if you decide to kiss me."

She laughed slightly and said, "I would hope so, but I'm really apologizing to myself. I promised I wouldn't do this."

"Do what?" Harry asked, "not kiss me? That sounds like a pretty awful promise if you ask me."

After laughing again, she said, "Not that, I meant get jealous of the other girls. I kissed you because I keep thinking it will be the last kiss I will ever have with you."

"Like I said, I really haven't decided," Harry answered.

"Do you think kissing you more might help you make a decision?" Padma asked unabashedly.

"It might," He admitted.

He was understandably rather excited to experience this new found sensation of kissing and if Padma wanted to do it, all the better.

"The thing is," She said finally, "I'd love to do that, but it just wouldn't be fair to the other girls."

"All is fair in love and war," Harry replied.

"You just want me to kiss you again," Padma reminded him.

He shrugged unabashedly himself and said, "Hey, can't blame a guy for trying."

"One date is all we are supposed to get," Padma claimed, "and I'd like to be chosen because you really do like me the best, not because I was willing to do you any sexual favors.

He choked as he said, "Uh, nobody said anything about...um...that."

"Maybe that was just me thinking what I'd be tempted to do so I could win you," Padma replied.

"I'm not looking for anything like that," He told her honestly.

"Neither am I, but there isn't a lot I wouldn't at least be tempted to do to finally get you. Right now for example, I'm tempted to rip those huge boobs of Susan's right out of her chest," Padma confessed.

"I had no idea you could be so violent," He pointed out, an unbidden image of both Padma and Susan fighting coming to his mind.

"Most girls can get rather nasty when it comes to fighting over a guy," Padma told him, "I'm no exception. All I can say is Susan is lucky she's so nice."

"Susan is rather nice," He agreed.

"Nice as in nice or nice as in "ooh, she's really nice as in hot?" Padma asked.

"Maybe a little of both," He admitted.

She laughed again and said, "I want to be mad at you, but I really can't as long as you make me laugh. At any rate, if you don't choose me, I hope it will be Susan."

"Why so?" He asked.

"Since Susan is so nice, in more ways than one as you so eloquently stated," Padma replied.

He wasn't entirely sure how to reply to that, but then suddenly a voice interrupted them.

"I'm sorry, Harry, were you in the middle of proposing to her?" Luna asked from the doorway.

Harry immediately coughed and Padma started majorly blushing.

"You've really got to stop doing and saying stuff like that," Harry cautioned.

"Well it's going to happen eventually, I'm just not sure when," Luna replied as if it was inevitable.

"I rather like Padma and all, but I just went on one date with her, I'd hardly say that I'm planning to marry her already," Harry reminded her.

"Speak for yourself," Padma answered.

He looked completely aghast until he noticed her grin that quickly turned into a laugh and realized she was messing with him.

"That's not funny," Harry told her.

"I agree," Luna stated emphatically, "I'd hardly consider our wedding to be any laughing matter."

"Our wedding?" Padma queried.

"Of course, meaning me, you, and everyone else who will be marrying Harry," Luna replied.

Evidently Padma was also used to the young insane ravenclaw, or at least as used to Luna as one could be because she asked her, "I see, so suddenly Harry is going to have a harem of girls then."

"Exactly!" Luna responded, sounding quite pleased that Padma had figured it out, "we'll all wear beautiful dresses, live in a castle, and Harry will brush our hair everyday."

"Well he is "Harry" Potter," Padma said, extending the joke he had made last night about liking her hair.

"That may be some guy's fantasy, but I'm finding that being sought after by many different girls to be quite a challenge. I can't imagine being married to more than one," Harry told them, "personally I'm just hoping to survive all these dates I've got lined up."

"Yes, lots and lots of dates for you Harry, and fortunately they aren't the nasty food kind either," Luna said.

"How terrible, too many dates with beautiful women, what a crime, we must alert the church elders," Padma said sarcastically.

"Why don't you go on dates with other beautiful women besides yourself then if you consider it such a great thing?" Harry goaded her.

Since he had also complemented her, she couldn't be mad at him, but she still blushed before addressing Luna: "All right, Luna, do you want to go on a date with me this Saturday?"

"I'm already going on a date with Harry then, but we can go tonight if you want," Luna suggested.

"You're going on a date with Harry?" Padma asked.

"She finally wore me down and I agreed to it," Harry confessed.

"Oooh, you want to come with me on our date?" Luna asked Padma, "it'll be so much fun if both of us go."

Padma seemed surprised but said, "Well I suppose if you are offering, unless this means I have to kiss you as well as Harry."

"No, we don't kiss until chapter 112," Luna informed her.

"I wasn't aware we were in a story," Padma admitted.

"There will be a book written about us eventually after Harry finally lets me write it and I become rich and famous," Luna answered.

"I see, so you become a famous author in this little future you seem to think is going to happen," Padma surmised, "so what about me, what do I become?"

"I see you as either a housekeeper or a princess, I'm not sure which," Luna replied.

Harry laughed at that.

"What's the matter Harry? You don't see me as a princess?" Padma asked, poking him in the shoulder.

"No I can definitely see that, it's seeing you as a housekeeper that I have a problem with," Harry told her.

"Nice save," Padma answered.

Turning to Luna, Harry asked, "So maybe you could tell me Luna if you really can see the future, just what I should do about Rita Skeeter."

"Oh no, Rita is the best thing that will ever happen to you, you shouldn't do anything to her," Luna stated.

"Okay, now I know you are crazy Luna," Padma told her, "because if Rita is the best woman that ever happened to Harry, then that means Harry has absolutely no taste whatsoever."

"Agreed," Harry said, "I'd take Millicent Bulstrode over her any day."

Millicent Bulstrode was widely regarded as the ugliest girl in the entire school, a gigantic monster of a thing.

"I'd take Millicent too," Luna concurred, "she's just so sexy!"

"Are we talking about the same Millicent?" Padma asked in consternation.

"The nargles told me that you would say that," Luna countered.

"Nargles aside," Harry said, "I think it's time that we get to class."

Padma checked her watch and saw that he was right.

"Well I suppose I'll see you on Saturday," Padma told him.

"Sooner actually," Luna said mysteriously.

TOOMANYTOOMANYTOOMANY

His next date was with Susan and while he felt better knowing that he had already gone on a date and thus had at least just that little bit of experience he was still a bundle of nerves.

As she came out of the Hufflepuff common room to meet him, he was struck by the gorgeous black dress that she wore, displaying her curves and rather abundant cleavage.

"You look beautiful," Harry told her, all the while trying not to think about the one thing he had noticed the most.

Don't look at her cleavage, don't look at her cleavage, Harry thought. Oh no, she saw me staring! What am I going to do?

She smiled at him, perfectly aware of just where he was looking.

"See something you like?" Susan asked.

"Sorry," He tried to apologize.

"If I didn't want you to look, I would have covered up more," Susan pointed out.

"Okay," He said, not really knowing what else to say.

"Just try to remember I have a face as well," Susan cautioned.

He forced himself to look directly into her face and was struck by just how beautiful her blue eyes were. Perhaps looking at her face wasn't too bad either.

After taking her hand, they headed to the Room of Requirement, which ended up being nearly the same as it had been for him and Padma, him seeing no reason to change it.

He took the liberty of scanning the room for listening spells, although Dobby, Winky, and half a dozen other house elves had already checked and come up with nothing.

Having found nothing himself, he was finally satisfied.

"What were you doing?" She asked.

"Checking for listening spells," Harry replied.

"Do you think someone is trying to spy on us?" Susan asked.

"You remember the Daily Prophet article this morning about my date with Padma? Well neither me nor her said anything about it but Rita Skeeter still seemed to somehow know quite a bit about how the date went," Harry said, "that means that someone must have set a listening spell on the room."

She frowned and said, "I'd hate to think someone would do that, but in reality I can see it happening, particularly Rita Skeeter. She'd do anything for a story."

"Exactly my point," Harry agreed, "I think she got the room because she didn't mention Padma and I kissing after we had left it in her article."

"You and Padma kissed?" Susan asked.

He blushed but said, "Well yes, we did, twice in all honesty."

"Were you wanting to kiss me as well tonight?" Susan questioned.

Now feeling very flustered as to what to say, he tried to come up with a response.

"I'd be less than honest if I said I didn't want to kiss you Susan, but I'd never do anything unless you wanted it," Harry told her.

She smiled and replied with, "Good answer Harry."

To his complete surprise, she leaned in and kissed him.

"I wanted to," She whispered into his ear.

Now grinning he said, "Wow, a kiss from a beautiful girl even before dinner, I must be getting better at this dating thing."

She laughed and countered, "Try just lucky. We'll see if you are a decent date or not."

Moving onto dinner, he once again used Dobby to take their orders.

"Did you make the ratatouille?" Harry asked Dobby.

"How did you know what my favorite food was?" Susan asked, sounding pleased.

"I asked Eloise Midgen what it was," Harry admitted.

"Dobby could not bring himself to make that peasant dish," Dobby confessed.

"Why not?" Harry asked him.

"It is beneath the great Harry Potter and his date to eat it," Dobby answered.

"Dobby there is little that is beneath me," Harry told him.

Then he reddened as he realized just what he said.

"Uh, that's not what I meant," Harry told a now laughing Susan, "stop laughing at me."

"Nobody laughs at the great Harry Potter," Dobby said, now sounding angry at Susan.

"It's okay Dobby," Harry said trying to defuse the situation before Dobby blasted her into outer space, "don't worry about it."

"I'm sorry Dobby," Susan apologized, "Harry can just be very funny even when he isn't intending to be."

"The great Harry Potter is the funniest wizard on earth!" Dobby claimed.

"Hardly," Harry confessed, "you're just biased towards me Dobby."

"Am not!" Dobby insisted.

"Okay Dobby, let me prove it to you," Harry said, "I'm going to tell you a joke. Why did the chicken cross the road?"

Dobby seemed puzzled by this question but finally said, "Dobby is not sure."

"To get to the other side," Harry told him.

Immediately Dobby began laughing as if he was about to explode from laughter.

Any normal person would simply rolled their eyes or think this was the lamest joke ever but Dobby kept right on laughing.

"See what I mean, totally biased," Harry claimed.

"Or he is just insane," Susan pointed out.

"That too, in which case, he and Luna should get along just fine for my date with her," Harry replied.

Susan sent him a curious look and he explained, "I kind of made a date with her on Saturday. She just wore me down until I agreed."

"Wow Harry, not enough dates for you already?" Susan asked.

He rolled his eyes and said, "You have no idea."

By now Dobby had finally recovered from his laughter and asked, "Dobby is sorry for laughing so hard at the great Harry Potter's fantastic joke, Dobby will get the meal that he has prepared."

Dobby disappeared before reappearing a few seconds later, carrying a tray of food, but he couldn't tell just what it was.

"What is it Dobby?" Harry asked him.

"Escargot," Dobby claimed.

A sinking feeling suddenly hit him as he asked, now upset, "You mean snails? You made Susan snails for dinner?"

This could easily go down in the history books for the worst meal ever served for a date. He'd likely never live it down.

"They are actually very good," Susan answered, quickly grabbing one from the plate Dobby had set down in front of her and biting into it.

Glad that she was actually okay with it, although admittedly a bit freaked out that she would like snails, he decided to sample one of his own.

Having grown up with the Dursleys, who had spent quite a bit time trying to feed him things they considered disgusting such as fruits and vegetables just to make him suffer, he was used to simply eating whatever he was given.

In the case of most of the fruits and vegetables, he actually rather liked them, even if he had had to hide that fact from them so they would continue giving them to him.

The sad thing was Aunt Petuna had a garden that none of the Dursley's actually ate from as it was really just to compete with the other neighbor's gardens, even if it was "devil food" as Dudley had dubbed it.

To his surprise, it actually tasted really good and he ended up thoroughly enjoying it.

"Can I just say that I am totally relieved that that actually tastes good?" Harry confided.

"I've had it before at those boring parties my aunt would take me to," Susan admitted.

"So tell me about your family life," Harry asked.

She winced but decided to start talking anyway.

"Well both my parents and most of my family were actually killed in the war with Voldemort," Susan said.

"I'm sorry," Harry told her.

"There's nothing to be sorry about," Susan said, "you didn't kill them, quite the opposite in fact."

"I suppose so," He agreed.

"I imagine you just want you parents back though," Susan surmised.

"I do," He answered pleased that she had realized this.

"We can talk about it if you'd like," Susan offered.

"Thanks Susan," Harry said gratefully, "but I think we should focus on happier things, we are on a date after all. So what were you thinking about doing after Hogwarts?"

"I was actually thinking about going into politics or perhaps law enforcement like my aunt," Susan responded.

"I've been thinking about going into law enforcement myself and become an auror," Harry replied.

"Maybe we could do that together," Susan suggested.

"Maybe," Harry agreed, "although you probably wouldn't see a lot of action. If I were a criminal, I would just surrender to you as soon as I saw you."

"If only that would happen," Susan agreed, "if you want I could put some handcuffs on you."

He was rather puzzled but she actually blushed and said, "I so totally realized what that could be construed as."

"You're in luck, since I have no idea," He confessed.

"Then I'm not about to tell you," Susan answered.

There was a pause, but Susan finally said, "I've obviously read what happened on your date with Padma."

"You really shouldn't believe everything you read," Harry cautioned.

"I agree, but the point I want to make is that it seems that you had a good time with her," Susan pointed out.

"I did, Padma is a really great girl," Harry admitted.

"The thing is, I really like you Harry, maybe not as much as Padma, but I really do like you. I'd be totally honored to go with you to the Ball. However I also recognize that if there is something between you and Padma, I don't want to get in the way of that."

"Funnily enough, she said the same thing about you," Harry confessed.

"She did?" Susan asked in surprise.

"She did," He confirmed.

"What were her exact words?" Susan asked.

"She said you were really nice," Harry replied.

"As in nice or in ooh she's hot nice?" Susan questioned.

"She asked the exact same thing," Harry responded.

"What did you tell her?" Susan insisted.

"I told her a little of both, but what I meant was **a** **lot** of both," Harry confessed.

She laughed and said, "So you want to dance with my nice, hot self?"

"I'd be a fool to turn down an offer like that," Harry answered.

They started dancing and while Harry knew he had danced last night with Padma, if Susan wanted to dance as well, he wasn't about to say no.

At least he was starting to get good at dancing, he thought.

As if the dancing gods were trying to humble him, he immediately tripped and fell causing him to fall on top of Susan, who also fell.

The next thing he knew he was on top of Susan and found he had at least landed on something soft.

Or make that two somethings, he quickly found out as he realized just what his head was resting on.

Immediately getting up and blushing heavily, he offered his hand to help Susan up, which she took.

"Well that certainly wasn't a side of me I was planning to let you find out about just yet," Susan admitted as she got up.

"I'm so sorry," He mumbled.

"It's okay, I'm sure you didn't do it on purpose. If I thought you had, you'd already be dead by now," Susan told him.

"So either I'm ridiculously clumsy or a pervert, I'm not sure which I'd like you to think of me as," Harry answered.

"Let's go with just lucky," Susan said, "it'll story you can tell your roommates or something as I'm sure you intend to do."

"I'd never do that Susan," Harry replied, "some guys might only notice your chest, but I swear I value you more for your heart."

"Thanks," Susan answered gratefully, "you know, you've actually even exceeded expectations as far as this date is concerned."

"Just let me know what I can do to make it better," Harry asked.

"How about another kiss?" Susan suggested.

Grinning, he leaned in as she kissed him once more.

Not a bad date either, he thought.

Author's Note: Though it may not seem like much, a lot actually happened this chapter. First of all, if you really think about it, Harry is a major celebrity, and society has proven to always have plenty of people interested in what celebrity is dating who. Harry would be no exception. Thus it would be perfectly natural to assume that the media and particularly Rita Skeeter would want to publicize Harry's dates and who he ultimately chose.

While quite upsetting that Rita would try to listen in on his dates, it will prove to have a huge impact on the actual plot. Don't worry though, Rita will not be getting away with it for long.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Stop the Press!

"So how has the dating been going?" Hermione asked Harry as they studied for a Transfiguration exam the next morning after breakfast.

"You should have already read about it in today's paper," Harry pointed out, annoyed not with Hermione but with Rita Skeeter.

Somehow Rita had still managed to find out what went on on his date with Susan, and he had quickly been inundated with guys wanting to know how Susan's boobs felt, having read about him landing his face on top of them accidentally last night.

He'd finally gotten sick of it and went with Hermione to go hide in the Transfiguration room until class started.

"I don't mean whatever garbage Rita spouted, I want to hear the truth from you," Hermione replied.

He sighed and said, "Honestly, it's going rather well. Too well in fact. I like both Padma and Susan and they seem to genuinely like me. I have a feeling it's only going to get harder when I go on dates with the rest of the girls."

"Well you're definitely going to hurt some of their feelings, that at least will be unavoidable," Hermione commented.

"I suppose I could look at it the way Ron would," Harry suggested, "simply pick the best looking one."

Hermione gave him an extremely disappointed look and said, "oh, Harry please tell me you aren't going to do that."

Just to have some fun with Hermione, he answered, "Actually, I think I will, which means I can't go with any of those girls. There's only one female in this school beautiful enough for me."

"You don't mean who I think you're referring to?" Hermione asked.

"Yep, I'm going to see if Mrs. Norris is still available," Harry admitted.

He had meant it as a joke, but he watched Hermione's face immediately drop.

"What's the matter? My joke offend you somehow? Look I didn't really mean it, I don't have a cat fetish," Harry claimed.

"No, it was pretty funny," Hermione said, now pretending to laugh even though the strain was quite obvious.

"Is there something wrong Hermione?" Harry asked, now concerned.

"No, nothing is wrong, we just need to finish studying for that exam," Hermione reminded him.

He would have pressed her further, but then Lavender and Parvati came into the room who immediately made a beeline towards him as soon as they saw him.

"Ooh, Harry," Lavender said, "so is it true the rumor about...?"

He stopped her there and answered, deciding to see if he could trick the very gullible Lavender, "Yes, it's all true. Every last rumor is true, even the one about me finding out Susan is really my long lost sister."

Lavender's eyes went wide, with an expression that seemed to be a mix between amazement at learning such a juicy piece of information and disgust at learning that Harry had evidently kissed his sister.

Parvati however was smart enough not to fall for it.

She poked Lavender, whose mouth had now dropped open.

"Come on Lavender, can't you see he's messing with us?" Parvati pointed out.

"You mean it...it isn't true?" Lavender asked, still wide-eyed.

"You seriously should stop believing everything you hear Lavender," Harry cautioned, "just because it's a rumor or even in the newspaper doesn't mean it's fact."

Lavender looked entirely taken aback, which was actually almost comical once he thought about it.

"I told Lavender a lot of what was in the paper wasn't true," Parvati claimed, "personally I think you just need to find a way to get rid of that Skeeter woman."

"If you can think of a way, I'd be more than happy to do it," Harry replied.

To his surprise, Lavender's eyes went wide again as she said, "Well I know that Daphne Greengrass' mom works for the Daily Prophet. Perhaps you could talk to Daphne and see if she'll talk to her mom."

"Isn't she a Slytherin though?" Harry pointed out.

Immediately after he said this, he slapped his hand against his head and exclaimed, "Merlin, I'm starting to sound like Ron."

Lavender and Parvati giggled at that as Parvati said, "You seriously don't want to sound like him. He's kind of an idiot."

"Major idiot," Lavender agreed, "he even told me that I shouldn't wear a green jacket since they were Slytherin colors, can you imagine that?"

"I think he was just trying to get you to take off your jacket so he could better stare at your boobs, the pervert," Parvati commented.

"Obviously but I can't blame him for that," Lavender answered, "but he also seems to think me wearing green makes me a "slimy Slytherin" in his words."

"Daphne at least is rather nice," Parvati claimed, "she'd probably help you. I don't think she likes Skeeter either."

"All right thanks, I'll do that," Harry said gratefully.

Parvati tried to drag Lavender away so they could go find a seat but Lavender couldn't resist asking one more question:

"At least tell me what you're planning to do for your date tonight?"

This gave him an opportunity for a bit more fun with her.

He leaned in towards her and asked conspiratorially, "Can you keep a secret?"

Lavender immediately nodded, totally falling for it.

"Okay, well I won't give any details, but it involves a priest, a rabbi, and a dog all walking into a bar," Harry told her.

Lavender looked confused until Parvati poked her in the arm again and said, "Can't you see he's messing with you again?"

Sheepishly, Lavender went with Parvati over to go sit down.

TOOMANYTOOMANYTOOMANY

When lunch finally came around, he found Daphne sitting at her house table, currently talking with some of her friends.

He'd never actually gone over to the Slytherin table so he wasn't entirely certain just what would happen.

Perhaps he could be attacked by all of the Slytherins, the sun could fail, the earth could blow up, really anything could happen for this momentous event.

He knew Ron would have insisted that he not go at all, but he wasn't Ron, and there was no reason why he shouldn't go over there.

At the very least, he could try and steal some more turkey, since they were already out at the Gryffindor table.

He'd never actually talked to Daphne before, but he at least knew who she was. She was attractive enough with long blonde hair, and a curvy figure for her to be noticed by the majority of the male population of Hogwarts.

Approaching Daphne as he came up behind her, he was quite aware of the many eyes now beginning to stare at him.

He tapped her on the shoulder and Daphne turned around to see him.

"Don't worry," Daphne reassured her housemates, "Harry is just here to ask me out."

"He does do that an awful lot doesn't he," Tracey Davis quipped.

Daphne got up from the table and started leading him out of the great hall.

"We can just talk here if you'd like," Harry recommended.

"Are you sure you want to be seen with a slimy snake like me?" Daphne joked.

"I'll take my chances," Harry replied, "besides I do speak snake after all."

"Finally a man who speaks my language," Daphne responded.

Harry laughed at that and said, "What do you know? I can be a snake charmer too."

"You can charm me any day Harry," Daphne claimed.

It suddenly felt rather awkward as he realized just what was going on.

"Are we actually flirting with each other?" Harry asked.

"I can't believe you would," Daphne replied, shaking her head, "flirting with a Slytherin, you could go to Azkaban for that."

"Not mention Ron would probably kill me if he ever found out," Harry admitted, "so at least prison would keep me safe from him."

"I'd rather not talk about your friend Ron," Daphne insisted, "no offense, but if I do, I'd be saying some rather harsh words."

"I gather he isn't very well liked among the Slytherins?" Harry guessed.

"Not particularly, he treats us like we're all evil scum," Daphne confessed, "personally I'm surprised you'd actually decide to talk to me."

"I'm finding not listening to Ron just might be better for me," Harry answered before pausing to ask, "so I'm guessing that you already know just why I wanted to talk to you."

"You told Lavender Brown, so of course I already knew. Word travels fast in Hogwarts," Daphne told him.

"Right, so I was wondering if perhaps you could write your mother and see if she has any suggestions," Harry said.

"Already done," Daphne claimed, "we live in Hogsmeade so I should hopefully be getting a reply back any minute now, assuming that she replies immediately back."

"Thank you," Harry said gratefully.

"You aren't getting my help for free though if we get your sneaky Skeeter problem fixed," Daphne informed him.

"What do you want then?" Harry asked, "a copy of my Potions' homework, having me embarrass myself in public, or my firstborn?"

Daphne seemed to think it over for a second and then said, "I'd imagine my potions essay is probably better than yours, I don't see the need to see you embarrass yourself, although getting your firstborn is rather tempting."

He laughed again and said, "Okay, well then what is that you want?"

"It's like I told everyone earlier. I want you to ask me out on a date," Daphne told him.

"Are you sure you want to date me?" Harry asked, "won't quite a few of the Slytherins have a problem with that?"

"Why should I care what other people I don't even care about think?" Daphne replied, "that being said, how can they say anything about me dating you? After all everyone is doing it."

"Oh I see, so you're doing this out of peer pressure?" Harry teased.

"No, I'm doing it because I think you're cute and funny and I want to go out with you before you go off choosing the love of your life for the ball coming up," Daphne insisted.

"While I'm not going to argue with that, my dating schedule is already a bit busy at the moment," He admitted.

"All right, then we can go whenever you are next available," She suggested.

There was a long pause after that as she seemed to be waiting for something from him.

"Aren't you going to ask me out?" Daphne then pointed out.

"You still haven't helped me with my Skeeter problem," Harry reminded her.

She grinned and said, "Good point."

At that moment, an owl flew down over them and the owl dropped a letter into Daphne's hands.

Reading it over, she said, "She's agreed to meet with us tonight during dinner so we can all go talk with the owner of the paper."

"How would we get out of the school though?" Harry reminded her.

Daphne squared her shoulders and told him, "I thought you were the great Harry Potter? I would have figured you could do anything."

She wore a smile so he could tell that she was just teasing him, not particularly caring about the boy-who-lived garbage.

"Nope, you obviously need to listen to Malfoy more," Harry argued, "I'm just scarhead, way too overrated and a stupid Gryffindor. I'm simply not a proper wizard like you and he are."

"You so totally did not compare me and Malfoy together," Daphne countered, trying to look upset.

"I thought all Slytherins worshiped the ground that he walks on," He pointed out.

"Maybe in his dreams, but there are plenty of Slytherins, myself included, who just think he's an egotistical jerk," Daphne answered.

"Glad to hear it," Harry said, "I don't think I could stand listening to you prattle on about how great he is."

She rolled her eyes and replied, "As if. You totally can't judge a book by its cover."

"Well spoken," He agreed, having already come to the conclusion that Daphne was not all like he had thought. In short, he rather liked her.

"Meet me in front of that Barmy statue when dinnertime starts," Harry told her, "I'll get us both out into Hogsmeade."

TOOMANYTOOMANYTOOMANY

While he waited for Daphne to arrive at the agreed upon meeting place that evening, he idly checked the time.

Only two minutes until 5. They had better hurry if he was to be able to make it back in time for his date with Hannah.

Coming around the corner however, he spotted both Padma and Luna walking towards him.

"I really don't think there are any bathrooms along this corridor," He heard Padma comment to Luna.

Yet when they came up to him Luna stopped and Padma looked at Luna and asked somewhat accusingly, "You didn't really have to go to the bathroom did you?"

"Maybe later," Luna admitted happily, "right now we've got to go with Harry on an adventure!"

"How do you know that Harry is going on an adventure?" Padma asked her.

"The nargles told me, and that we needed to come along," Luna insisted.

At that moment, Daphne came around the corner as well.

Immediately Luna rushed over and gave a very surprised Daphne a huge hug.

"Ooh Daphne, you're finally here!" Luna said as she squeezed her tightly.

Daphne did not return the hug, but instead tried to pry Luna off her.

"I wasn't aware that you would miss me so much or I would have gotten here sooner," Daphne claimed, "despite the fact that I didn't know that you would be here...or even knew me all that well."

"Oh don't worry, we don't really know each other yet," Luna replied, "but we will, which is why I'm excited that you're finally here."

"Don't look at me," Padma insisted to Daphne, "I thought Luna just wanted me to go with her to the bathroom, only to find out she thinks you and Harry are going on some adventure that we apparently need to come along for."

"I guess that's okay, assuming that you don't mind sneaking out of the school to get into Hogsmeade and assuming that Harry has found a way to get into it," Daphne replied.

"I've always wanted to break out of school," Luna claimed, "I thought that I'd do it with Harry next year, but right now is good too."

"What on earth are you talking about?" Padma demanded.

"Oh don't worry, that future won't happen, unless of course Harry chooses to go with your sister to the Yule Ball," Luna told her.

Padma blinked and said, "I think I would kill Parvati if she decided to steal Harry like that."

Luna simply shrugged and Daphne decided to ask him, "So how exactly are we getting into Hogsmeade?"

"You're looking at it," Harry informed them, tapping on the statue behind him.

As soon as he activated the secret tunnel behind it, he ushered them all inside.

"How did you know this was here?" Daphne asked him as he entered behind her.

"A wizard never reveals all his secrets," Harry claimed.

He led them down the tunnel and into the Honeydukes cellar.

"How are we going to get through the town without being seen?" Daphne whispered.

He pulled out his invisibility cloak.

"I thought it would just be the two of us, but I suppose that since it's already pretty dark we can risk using a disillusionment charm on both Padma and Luna," He suggested.

Padma and Luna were then disillusioned, not perfectly but adequate enough for them not to be noticed as long as nobody really paid too close attention.

"Would you happen to know where the Daily Prophet building is?" Daphne asked him.

"I do," Luna volunteered.

"Okay then, we'll meet you both over there since it will be kind of hard to follow us under this cloak," Daphne advised.

They then headed out of Honeydukes and into the night.

Daphne led him, with both of them under the cloak, down a path he hadn't been down before until they stopped at a large building at the end.

In front of it stood a woman who looked too much like Daphne not to be her mother, with the same blonde hair and attractive curvy figure.

Seamus had always insisted on judging a girl based upon how their mother looked, that way you could be sure they would still look good 20 years down the road.

Under that belief, Seamus would have believed Daphne to be quite the catch then, he had to say.

"We can take the cloak off now," Daphne insisted, "I think my mom expected us to get permission to leave, and not just sneak out."

They took off the cloak, making sure her mother was looking the other way before they approached her.

"Hello mother," Daphne addressed her.

Her mother looked momentarily surprised at being snuck up on but went and gave her daughter a hug nonetheless.

"How are you Daphne? I've missed you," Her mother told her.

"I'm good," Daphne claimed.

"We're good too," Luna said, coming up behind them.

"Who's there?" Mrs. Greengrass asked as she stared right at both Luna and Padma's disillusioned forms.

She immediately cast some sort of spell that allowed both Padma and Luna to be seen.

"We decided to come along as well," Padma sheepishly admitted.

"So you figured that you would simply try to sneak out and tag along, you two?" Mrs. Greengrass asked accusingly.

"We all snuck out though," Luna admitted.

Daphne groaned and told her, "Thanks a lot Luna."

"Daphne! You were supposed to get permission to leave the school," Mrs. Greengrass reprimanded.

"I wasn't sure Dumbledore would say yes," Daphne claimed.

"Then you should have owled me back and we might have worked something out," Her mother argued.

"Sorry, I just couldn't resist," Daphne answered, "Harry said he could get us out and..."

Mrs. Greengrass then turned to him and recognition came across her face, "Ah so that's why. You were trying to impress a boy you like."

"Mother!" Daphne exclaimed, now blushing profusely.

She extended her hand and shook hands with him, "I'm Willa Greengrass, and you must be Harry Potter, currently the one being a bad example on my daughter."

"I'm sorry Mrs. Greengrass," Harry apologized, "it won't happen again."

"Yes it will," Luna replied happily, "loads of times."

"You'll have to excuse Luna," Daphne interjected, "she's a little crazy. Of course it won't happen again."

Harry nodded reassuringly.

She glanced them over before replying, "I would hope not, but it isn't like I'll be able to stop any of you either. Darn teenage years. The good news is that I'm eager to help you stick it to Rita, so I'll let you all off and not tell Dumbledore you snuck out."

"Thanks mother," Daphne said gratefully.

"I said I wouldn't turn you in," Her mother pointed out, "however you're still my daughter which means I can take your broom away during the Christmas break."

"That long!" Daphne pouted.

"It would have been longer but at least the boy you picked is cute," Mrs. Greengrass told her, giving a small glance at him at the same time.

Daphne immediately blushed again, much to her annoyance.

They then accompanied her into her into the building and down it until they reached an office at the end.

Before they entered she explained briefly what they needed to know.

"Just about everyone hates Rita here and we've been wanting to see her get fired for years but the owner and editor of the paper has continued to keep her around. Personally I think it's just because she's been sleeping with him, but I can't be sure."

"How are we supposed to do anything about it then?" Padma asked.

"The paper was just sold and recently came under new management," Mrs. Greengrass replied, "hopefully he'll be more sympathetic to you, although I will warn you he'll still value a good story over anything else."

She knocked on the office door as a large heavyset man opened the door.

"Hello Willa, if you're here to discuss a raise..." The man addressed her.

"No, Mr. Carruthers," Mrs. Greengrass answered, "I've brought Harry Potter here to..."

"Harry Potter!" Mr. Carruthers exclaimed, looking down at him before addressing him, "I've been dying to do an interview with you every since I bought the paper."

As he didn't want to immediately nix that idea as he might be willing to do an interview provided his Skeeter problem went away, he said, "Perhaps, but there is something else I'd like to discuss first."

He ushered them all into his office and asked as he then sat down, "So what can I do for you?"

"I was wondering if I could talk with you about one of your reporters Rita Skeeter," Harry claimed, "you see she's recently been reporting about me and my dating life."

"I'm quite familiar with those articles," Mr. Carruthers admitted, "I think we set a record in new subscriptions today because of it."

"The problem is I don't think she is doing an adequate job at reporting it, misconstruing facts and forming a poor representation of me," Harry pointed out.

"I'm aware that Rita might be wrong on occasion..."

At this Padma scoffed.

"However," Mr. Carruthers confessed, "she does sell papers and that series of stories she's going to be writing on you are going to be good moneymakers."

"What about my privacy?" Harry asked.

"This is journalism, there's no such thing as privacy, especially not for a big celebrity like you," Mr. Carruthers objected.

He wasn't happy about this, but he also recognized there was little he could do in stopping his dating life being reported. He could however hopefully change who was reporting it.

"Surely something could be done, however," Harry argued, "perhaps another reporter such as Mrs. Greengrass here could cover the story."

Mr. Carruthers scratched his head and finally said, "I'd do it, but the problem is Rita seems to be the only reporter that has been able to convince the Ministry to allow them to enter Hogwarts. I'd want a reporter on site to do interviews."

"How about me?" Luna volunteered.

"No offense kid, but I'd want an experienced reporter, not a little girl," Mr. Carruthers insisted.

"My daddy owns the Quibbler and I've been doing articles for him since I was 7," Luna answered, "I'd also be willing to take butterbeer corks as payment."

To his credit, Mr. Carruthers did not automatically dismiss her offer as insane, but instead seemed to be seriously debating it.

"Hmm, I suppose I could try you out, especially since I can tell my ex-wife that those butterbeer corks I never bothered to throw away actually came in use," Mr. Carruthers said, before yelling up at the ceiling, "Who's laughing now Maude, who's laughing now?"

"You're ex-wife went to heaven?" Padma asked, assuming that was the reason he was staring up at the ceiling.

"Heavens no," Mr. Carruthers answered, "she divorced me before I got rich, so now I have her cleaning my apartment upstairs as my maid for work. I now pay her almost nothing what she wouldn't do at all during our two years of marriage."

He laughed at his own little joke until finally telling them, "I'll give the girl here a chance, but I'd like you Willa to supervise her as much as possible. I'm making you lead on all things Harry Potter."

"Thank you sir, but what about Rita?" Willa asked.

"I'll just have to come up with something else for her to do," Mr. Carruthers claimed.

Padma smiled and said, "I've got a story idea for you. What if you had Rita do the same thing as Harry and date a whole bunch of men and then choose one."

"What would the new angle be? I like the idea for the series on Harry we're already doing, but we're going to need something fresh for that idea," He answered.

"How about instead of really great guys, we do one on the worst guys we can possibly find," Padma suggested.

"Like Snape or Filch," Harry piped in, now grinning insanely at Rita having to go out on dates with either of them.

Scratching his head again, Mr. Carruthers said, "I like it. I think my readers would really like reading about something like that."

"I think they will too," Luna replied.

TOOMANYTOOMANYTOOMANY

He just barely managed to make it back in time for his date with Hannah so he was unsurprised to find her already outside her common room waiting for him.

Already huffing and puffing having ran the whole way there he had to pause to catch his breath and she said, "Are we going to be exercising on our date Harry?"

"No, I just wanted to make it here in time," Harry gasped.

"So why is it you wanted me to wear regular clothes then? Please tell me it wasn't to avoid getting the question, "Does this dress make me look fat?"

Harry could only gape at her, unable to come up with a suitable answer to the question that had no doubt plagued guys since dresses had been invented.

"I'm sorry, that was rather rude of me," Hannah apologized, "of course I'm going to look fat in a dress, I look fat in anything I wear."

"Hannah," Harry cautioned, "I want you to know something. I really don't care if you're fat. In fact I rather like the extra weight on you and it's even had much of it go to the right places. I don't want to hear you putting yourself down or thinking you aren't good enough for me. If anything I'm not good enough for you. Do you know why Hermione asked you out for me?"

"I assumed that it was because she felt sorry for me and that I wouldn't get a date otherwise," Hannah told him.

"No, actually she did it because she knew I already liked you," Harry admitted.

Now Hannah looked totally shocked, unable to believe what she had just heard.

"Please don't lie to me Harry," Hannah insisted, "rich, famous, and attractive guys don't date fat girls."

"That's only because of what society wants you to think," Harry argued, "even I had that pounded into me so I never realized that I actually had a crush on you, focusing instead on other thinner girls like Cho Chang for instance."

"I had no idea," Hannah claimed.

"Neither did I, but Hermione noticed, which is why she asked you out for me," Harry told her, "I've found myself staring at you more than once and Hermione must have seen me doing it. I mean really if you think about it, what isn't there to like about you, with the added bonus of there being more of it. In fact I've even had few fantasies about you and..."

He then stopped, embarrassed at having made even that much of a confession to her.

Finally she said, "You know, I don't think I've ever heard anyone say more beautiful words than that."

Wait what?

"For the first time I actually feel desired, attractive even," Hannah confessed, sounding almost giddy, "who would have thought Harry Potter liking me?"

"Don't let it all go too much to your head," Harry cautioned.

"Yet here I was thinking you were going to worship the ground I walk on," Hannah teased.

"I wouldn't have guessed you were the type to make jokes," Harry replied.

"I'm normally not, but you seem to have brought it out in me, merlin you just made me really happy," Hannah answered honestly, grinning broadly.

"You're welcome I suppose," Harry told her.

"So now I suppose I get to go on a date, with a guy I like, who actually likes me," Hannah surmised.

"If it's that much of a shock, you've seriously underestimated yourself," Harry pointed out.

"Yes, I suppose I have," Hannah finally concluded, "so where are we going for this fabulous date we have planned? Dancing again?"

"I figured we'd do something a little more your style," Harry responded, "we'll be going into the school kitchens to make your favorite dessert."

"Pretzels, gummy bears, peanuts, and hot fudge all piled on top of cookie dough ice cream?" Hannah asked hopefully.

"Okay you're second favorite dessert," Harry said, "chocolate cake with chocolate frosting."

"Ooh yay!" Hannah said excitedly as she licked her lips in anticipation.

"While it's cooking we'll then have dinner," Harry told her.

Taking her arm, they headed off to the kitchens and along the way, Harry experienced a totally new side to Hannah he hadn't seen before.

Usually she was rather reserved and timid, but tonight Hannah was actually rather talkative and fun.

He idly wondered just what had made the change, whether she actually was this way but just not in public or because whatever he had said to her had put her in a really good mood.

At any rate, when they got to the kitchens, Dobby was there with all of the ingredients.

"Dobby is not sure why the great Harry Potter must cook when he has Dobby to do it for him," Dobby insisted.

"Since cooking can be fun Dobby," Harry said, "you know what fun is right?"

"Working for Harry is fun," Dobby claimed.

He struggled to come up with a way to explain it to Dobby so that he could understand.

"Well I want to have fun too, which is why I'm cooking for Hannah here," Harry told the elf.

Dobby's eyes went wide as he looked over at Hannah as he asked her, "You mean Ms. Hannah you is owning the great Harry Potter?"

Hannah laughed and said to Harry, "you hear that Harry? Apparently I own you."

"Not exactly Dobby, she just owns me for the night," Harry claimed.

"Dobby understands," Dobby answered, although looking very surprised as he couldn't help gaping at Hannah before shaking himself and apologized, "I must check on your dinner now."

Dobby rushed off to another part of the kitchen.

"You do realize that you just told Dobby that I hired you as my male prostitute for the evening since that's what he would understand from your statement," Hannah pointed out.

"Whoa!" Harry said, blushing deep red, "I so did not intend for him to think that."

"I'd imagine not, although if you want to be my sex slave, I'd be willing to pay pretty good money for you," Hannah teased.

His mouth gaped wide open and Hannah began to laugh.

"It's not funny," Harry argued.

"I'm sorry, but it so is," Hannah insisted as she still continued to laugh.

When her laughter finally ended, she said, "All right, when Dobby gets back I'll explain it to him a bit better so he understands."

"Thank you," Harry expressed gratefully.

"So let's get to making that cake," Hannah told him.

Everything went well, including putting the cake into the oven, but a problem soon arose in making the frosting.

It turned out quite thin, but Hannah decided to just leave it as she rather liked it that way.

Harry reached a finger in to try it, but accidentally managed to fling some of it onto Hannah's cheek.

"Hey!" She cried.

"Sorry," He apologized.

In response she flung some back at him, which landed on his own cheek.

Now grinning, he exclaimed, "So that's how you want to play it then?"

He reached in and grabbed some more, which he promptly flung at her.

She in turn grabbed some and pretty soon their faces were covered in chocolate.

They both wiped it off with some paper towels however.

"You've still got some on your lip," Harry pointed out.

Hannah grinned and said, "Is that so? It looks like you're just going to have to kiss it off me."

"Am I really?" He asked grinning back, "kissing on the first date, pretty big step there don't you think?"

"Nothing you haven't already done before and nothing I'm going to regret," She claimed.

He then leaned in and kissed her before drawing away.

"Wow," Hannah declared.

"Was that your first kiss?" Harry asked her.

"Yes," Hannah admitted, "so how was I?"

"You tasted like chocolate," Harry pointed out.

"Gotta love chocolate," Hannah answered, sounding satisfied with his answer before asking, "can I do that again?"

"That's a dumb question," Harry told her.

Taking that to mean yes, she leaned in and kissed him yet again.

"You know I was worried about tonight ending and then you not picking me but I'm not now," Hannah declared.

He groaned and admitted, "You know I think you're a great girl Hannah, it's just that there are a lot of other great girls I've got to choose from as well."

"I know, but oddly enough I have a feeling I'm still going to end up with you," Hannah confessed.

"You haven't been talking to Luna have you?" Harry asked.

Hannah shook her head.

Perhaps Luna just might...

No, Luna was crazy, everyone knew that. Only a crazy person would ever think that so many girls would all choose to be with just him.

He turned back to Hannah and suggested they finish putting the frosting on the cake.

Author's Note: Nice set up chapter for much of the rest of the story without giving too much away I think. I also had Harry have a crush on Hannah because I figured it would be more fun that way and help drive the plot.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Flying High

He was just dropping Hannah off in front of the entrance to the Hufflepuff common room, when they were both tapped on the shoulders.

"Hello Harry and Hannah," Luna said, seeming to begin to say something before suddenly going misty eyed again and instead said, "wow, both of your names start with H."

"I suppose that settles it then, apparently they were made for each other," Daphne claimed, coming up behind them with Padma right next to her.

"Are we having an intervention here or something?" Hannah queried as she eyed all three girls, seeming to be curious as to why they were there.

"I don't know, do we have reason to have an intervention?" Daphne asked slyly.

Padma decided to take pity on them and say, "Don't worry, we're just here to interview both of you and see how the date went."

"For some reason they seem to think they need to be around to keep me focused," Luna confessed, "I can't imagine why."

"We're just crazy," Daphne answered.

"Don't worry I like crazy people," Luna claimed, "Most people actually are crazy, so very few are sane like me."

"Just who else do you know who's sane?" Daphne questioned.

"Professor Hagrid, Professor Dumbledore, Professor Moody, my father, and Harry of course," Luna replied.

"Gee thanks Luna for judging me to be sane, I sure am in good company," Harry said sarcastically, personally too amused to be upset at Luna's pronouncement.

All the girls besides Luna laughed.

"At any rate, we had better do these interviews," Padma then reminded them all.

"Would you mind going first Harry?" Daphne suggested.

He nodded his head as he was led to the nearest classroom, following Padma inside.

Sitting across from all 3 girls while Hannah waited outside, they began the interview.

"So have you asked her to marry you yet?" Luna asked right off the bat.

Padma looked scandalized by this question, but Daphne merely grinned and said: "He already asked me to marry him silly."

"Oh good, so when's the wedding?" Luna enthusiastically asked, immediatiely believing her.

"Harry and Daphne are not getting married Luna!" Padma snapped.

"We could be," Daphne reminded her, "you think I'm not good enough for him?"

Padma looked entirely unsure what to reply to that, but fortunately Luna said to Padma reasurringly: "Don't worry, he'll ask you to marry him too eventually."

"I'm just messing with her Luna," Daphne answered.

"Oh you mean like a joke?" Luna asked, swinging her arms, "hah hah, I like jokes."

"So do I," Daphne agreed, "have you heard the one about the..."

"Are you about done with the interview?" Hannah interrupted as she peeped in on them.

"Actually we haven't even gotten started," Padma admitted somewhat guiltily.

"Okay, just checking," Hannah said, before popping back out again.

Evidently having decided to proceed onward, Padma began asking him questions:

"So how do you feel the date went?

What were some things that you found that you liked about Hannah?

What were some interesting moments that you don't mind sharing?

He answered all of those questions but then was interrupted by Luna who asked rather weird questions such as if he would rather go on another date with Hannah or a bunny rabbit?

When he chose Hannah, she exclaimed, "Oh, but bunnies are so cute."

"I thought bunnies weren't real?" Daphne asked her.

"Of course they are, don't be silly," Luna answered, "yet if you have trouble finding out about which animals are real or not, I would be happy to help you."

"We'll have plenty of time to talk about that when we both marry Harry," Daphne reminded her, even though Harry could tell that Daphne was not actually being serious. She probably didn't believe much of anything that Luna said, not that he could blame her.

"You don't have to make fun of her Daphne," Padma cautioned.

"No, it's okay, since I know that Daphne and I will soon be the best of friends," Luna claimed.

"I can see that," Daphne admitted fairly, "at least you'd be a fun friend to have."

"Oh, thanks future BFF!" Luna replied gratefully, going and giving her a hug, which Daphne to her credit did not reject.

Luna then turned to him and asked, "so who would you rather be friends with? A chicken or a duck?"

They only had a few questions after that and then he was released to go, not wanting the interview to take up any more time than they had taken.

He stood outside while they interviewed Hannah.

Several minutes later, she also came out and he escorted her back to her common room finally.

"I hope that you didn't mind doing that little interview," He told her.

"OH I didn't mind at all," She answered, "I actually said quite a lot of good things about you."

She gave him a wink.

"So did I," He admitted.

"I guess I'll get to read about it in tomorrow's paper," Hannah claimed.

"You sure will," He agreed.

She gave him one final kiss before going and entering her common room.

He had thought that he was then alone but evidently someone else was there because he heard a faint sound just to his left.

"Luna, you've really got to stop doing that," He cautioned.

"I just enjoy watching it all happen, just as it starts," She admitted.

"How what starts?" He asked.

"Oh you won't be happy at first, but you'll come to like it eventually," She told him.

"What won't I be happy about?" He queried.

She merely giggled and said, "I like candy canes and rainbow colored scarves."

Skipping happily down the hallway, he could only shake his head at the retreating form of the crazy ravenclaw girl.

TOOMANYTOOMANYTOOMANY

The following day, he missed breakfast because Hermione had told him that she had a major red alert crisis on her hands: she couldn't find her homework assignment for Ancient Runes.

Deciding to help her, they looked all over for it until he found out that it wasn't even due for another week.

Needless to say he was extremely annoyed that he had wasted his morning looking for a homework assignment that wasn't even due yet.

By then, he had already missed breakfast and so was forced to skip it, his stomach growling as he got ready for his first class, which happened to be Divination.

Hermione, however, feeling guilty produced some soy cubes for him to eat on his way there.

He was hungry enough that he actually ate one, despite the fact that it tasted horrible. Perhaps he would get lucky and Professor Trelawney would have them study tea leaves again.

Perhaps if he chose to drink his supposed prophecy, he might get a better reading than he had before or at the very least, make him less hungry.

At any rate, when he got there, he went and sat down in the back on one of the cushions.

As soon as he did so, he noticed that all of the girls in the class appeared to now be staring at him or at the very least giving him constant glances.

They didn't appear angry or to be laughing at him, in fact it looked like they were checking him out.

While he was rather used to at least some attention from girls, this appeared to be more than he was used to.

He finally decided to ask Lavender: "So why are you staring at me?"

"I was just noticing how beautiful your eyes were," Lavender commented unabashedly, sighing.

"Um, thanks I guess," Harry said, "you have beautiful eyes too."

"You seem to always know just what to say to a girl," Lavender concluded.

He would definitely never make that assumption, unless he was a total pompous idiot. Malfoy might already think that, but he didn't.

"Now if only you could convince Hermione of that," He joked.

Lavender however, seemed to take it a different way and gushed, "I knew it! Are you crushing on Hermione then? This is like totally like such epic major news!"

"I didn't mean it like that," He answered, "Hermione's a nice girl, but she's with Krum, and I'm with...well I'm not really sure at the moment."

"Well if things don't work out with any of them, you'll know where to find me," Lavender told him, winking at him.

He was sure that Lavender was totally hitting on him, which wouldn't have caused any undue concern since Lavender was well known as a total flirt, but he was still unnerved by all of the other stares he was still getting from the other girls in the class.

Parvati came into class a minute later, who also looked back to give him a long stare.

Choosing to ignore these stares until he could figure out what was going on, particularly from either Daphne, Luna, or Padma, whom he had a feeling were responsible for the sudden increased attention he was getting from the female population, he waited until Professor Trelawney came in and began the class.

"Class, I have an announcement of utmost importance!" She claimed in her usual out of it voice.

Personally Harry was starting to wonder if Trelawney was on drugs while making her "announcements" or "visions" or perhaps just all the time.

At any rate, she continued with: "As you may have already known, Venus has aligned perfectly with Mars, and both have grown brighter in the sky of late. It can only mean one thing: there shall be a war of love!"

Both Parvati and Lavender had already leaned forward, now listening intently.

"Whatever does that mean?" Lavender asked curiously.

"I did not know that myself, but after consulting the tea leaves this morning, I believe I have finally found an answer: a student, even in this very room will prove to be a catalyst for a war fought for his heart."

"Who is it?" Lavender then demanded.

"My dear, it is none other than our own Harry Potter!" She exclaimed gravely in the same tone that she usually used when declaring his death.

By now he'd gotten tired of her antics, so he said: "yep, that's me, Harry of Troy. They'd better start building that wooden horse now."

"You have no idea just what will happen to you, dear boy," Trelawney tried to tell him, "we can see it is already beginning to happen as we read about it in the papers."

"You can't believe everything you read," He claimed.

"My sister helped write that last article, so I'm pretty sure that this morning's at least was true Harry," Parvati pointed out.

"Yeah, I'm going to have to talk to her apparently," He answered.

"I have decided to revisit tea leaves so that you can all see the phenomenon for yourselves!" Trelawney suggested.

Instead of being upset, Harry let out an actually audible: "Yes!"

Earning several more glances, he mumbled, "What? I like tea."

After a lesson of constant stares and Trelawney prattling on about finding whatever it was she was blabbing about in every person's tea leaves, he left the class and headed to his next one, feeling at least less hungry as he had "needed several cups of coffee to get anything."

Before he got too far however, he was surprisingly pulled into a broom closet and kissed by some unknown girl before he had a chance to escape.

It wasn't unpleasant of an experience, but he was still wondering just who it was.

"Oh, I knew you really were a good kisser!" The girl claimed.

"Wait a minute," Harry concluded, "Romilda?"

"Guity as charged," She admitted smiling at him, "want another taste?"

Before anything else could happen, the door to the broom closet was pulled open again and Harry looked to see Padma now glaring at Romilda as she yelled: "Out!"

Romilda made a hasty exit and left.

"Not that I mind being pulled into broom closets and being kissed by girls, but would you mind telling me just what's going on?" Harry demanded.

She sighed and said, "I'm assuming you never read today's paper, or if you did, you didn't really read it."

He nodded.

"As you probably already know, Hannah had a wonderful time on her date with you and she positively gushed about how wonderful you are. Of course, you had only good things to say about Hannah as well so we had really only a lot of super positive information to work with from both of you when working on the story. Of course, add to that the fact that all 3 of us think you are quite the catch too so it led to casting you in a very fanciful light. I'd imagine plenty of girls are wondering if you really are that great as you seemed to be in the article."

"So that's why all those girls keep ogling me," Harry concluded, "however that still doesn't explain why you didn't realize this might happen or tried to stop it."

"After reading it, I did notice that," Padma said, "the problem was that well, it was all true."

"Yes, because the readers need to know the truth about me," Harry sarcastically said, "if I wanted that, I would have stuck with Rita Skeeter."

"Don't be like that Harry," Padma told him, "we probably could have made you sound horrible or just average, but that just wouldn't be honest either. Besides, we think that this can be a really great thing."

"How so?" He asked.

"Just hear me out," She suggested, "we noticed that you had evidently had a profound effect upon Hannah. She's always been rather self conscious of her body and herself, but after seeing just how she acted after the date with you, she seemed to totally change, as if you had treated her like she was worth a million dollars and she was the most beautiful girl on earth. There are so many girls out there that are self conscious or think badly of themselves, yet the idea that someone like you, who has many other what would be considered more beautiful girls to choose from to treat Hannah like that would no doubt be very comforting to them. That's really what we made the article about: that no matter what, every girl can be considered beautiful and that there are guys out there who will treat them with respect. I'll bet even Hannah was probably changed a lot for the better simply by taking the time and effort on her even if you never go out again. I felt that it was important that we do that, but I'm sorry for doing so without your permission."

How was he supposed to reply to that?

"I suppose I can't really be mad at you if that's the case," Harry answered, deciding to be fair to her and see how things went for now, "even if I may not like the increased attention, if it's helping people, then I can't really be mad at that."

"I'm glad that you understand Harry," Padma told him, "I worried so much that I had done the wrong thing to you."

"It's okay," He reassured her, "I suppose I really was upset, but I also feel like I can trust you to do what's right."

"Thanks Harry," Padma said gratefully.

"I just have one question," He admitted, "Is there a reason why we're still in a broom closet?"

He'd meant it to ask just why they had to be in such a dark, confined space fully of dirty cleaning utensils, but she seemed to take it to mean something else entirely.

"There's nothing wrong with broom closets Harry," Padma replied, grinning at him.

She leaned in and kissed him and he happily kissed back.

Yep, definitely nothing wrong with broom closets he had to agree. While he didn't mind the Romilda kiss, he had to admit that Padma was definitely the better kisser.

When both of them left the broom closet to get to their next classes, both of them smiling wide smiles, he was already much more willing to accept that perhaps he shouldn't be too upset if lots of girls apparently liked him.

Padma handing him a copy of the paper certainly helped and as he surreptitiously read it during Charms he had to admit that it seemed to be just as Padma had told him.

He liked making girls feel special, even if it was only for one night and he was pleased to hear that it had had such a positive impact on Hannah.

He'd be sure and try and do the same with his other dates even if he did get more attention.

TOOMANYTOOTOOMANY

Following a day full of stares from girls, he had taken to smiling and waving back at them to let them all know he knew they were staring at him.

Admittedly it was kind of fun, at least for now, reminding them to turn around and focus on the class.

When he finally got some free time during lunch, he pulled Hermione aside to ask her what she thought.

She bit her lip, seeming to be a bit worried about what she wanted to say.

"It's okay, Hermione, you're free to express you're own opinion," He told her.

"See the thing is, while I know you may not like the attention..." She began before blurting out, "I think it's great what you're doing!"

"Why?" He asked.

"When I asked Hannah to go with you in the first place I had honestly hoped that something like this might happen with her," Hermione confided, "she didn't have a lot of self confidence in herself and I just knew that if you went on a date with her and just allowed yourself to be yourself that she would feel a lot better."

"Hannah is a great girl," He admitted.

"I'm glad to see that you didn't let a little something like someone's weight get in the way of having a good time on a date," She told him.

"Well there's nothing wrong with a little more ushin to the cushion," He answered jokingly.

"I wouldn't put it like that," Hermione argued.

"How else would you like me to put it?" He asked, "Hannah's got some curves, she's a BBW, she's as much woman as any man could ever want, heavy in body and heavy on my heart..."

"Okay I get it," Hermione said, "quit while you're ahead, I don't need to hear that."

"I don't think there is anything wrong with making bigger girls seem more attractive," He pointed out, "or any body type for that matter. Any girl can be beautiful even if you don't automatically see it at first."

"No I don't suppose I can argue with that," Hermione said, seeming quite pleased at his answer for whatever reason, "I think you set a great example for other guys in that regard."

"I did think of that," He agreed, "although I think some of the guys might get a bit mad if I appear to be a better date than they would be especially considering how many mistakes I've already made in my previous dates."

"You're just fine Harry," Hermione insisted, "that's their problem, not yours."

"Try asking Krum that," He pointed out.

"I expect Krum will also have a positive influence in that regard and in proving that unattractive girls can be desired as well," Hermione responded.

"Why? You're definitely not unattractive," He argued.

She blushed but then said, "you're sweet Harry, but I wouldn't say that."

"Sounds like Hannah isn't the only one who needs to be reminded she's beautiful," Harry told her, "even Krum noticed that and he's extremely lucky to have you as a date."

She blushed yet again, and she thanked him, "You know, I think Hannah isn't the only one who's been changed for the better. I would have never guessed you really do know exactly what to say to a girl."

"I wish," He insisted, "Lavender made the same comment to me today. I make so many mistakes around girls, it's almost not funny."

"I'd say you are at least doing something right," She argued.

TOOTOOMANYTOOMANY

When it came time for his date with Angelina, he waited down at the bottom of the stairs to her room since they were both Gryffindors.

When she finally came out, she was wearing a tight white shirt and light blue pants that highly emphasized her womanly curves and contrasted well with her dark skin.

He was also suddenly painfully aware that this was an actual woman, several years older than him and of age as well.

"Hey Harry," She greeted him as she came down the stairs, "ready to wow me with the most amazing date ever?"

"Nope, I was planning on having us spend the night helping Filch clean the school bathrooms," He joked.

"Oh good, that's exactly what I was hoping you would say we were going to do," She countered.

"Admittedly I am a little bit worried though. Hannah might have made me seem a bit better of a date than I really am, so I can't promise I'd be able to replicate that for you. Besides, I'm sure that you've already been on plenty of dates before."

"I'm really not expecting too much, I was just joking before," She confessed, "I think we'll have a great time because I already know you, but I don't expect you to leave me so wowed I can't even think straight."

"So I suppose snogging you senseless is out then?" He asked.

He had meant it as a joke and she knew but she said, "We'll see if your luck holds throughout the date. So what are we really going to be doing?"

"Well I figured that since we haven't had quidditch this year, that you might be a bit eager to go do some flying," He suggested.

"That sounds like fun," She agreed.

"I'll even let you use my broom," He offered.

"You'd never win against me if I've got your broom," She argued.

"I wasn't aware we were going to competing in something," He pointed out.

"Exactly how long have you known me Harry?" She asked, "everything is a competition."

They had a lot of fun flying around with Angelina thoroughly enjoying using his Firebolt. Last year he flew circles around his teammates with his broom.

Eventually, however, Angelina suggested that they both ride his broom.

He slid on behind her, trying to leave as much room as possible between them.

"You know you can actually be touching me," She pointed out, "I promise I don't have cooties."

"I'll need to see a note from Madame Pomfrey," He told her.

She laughed, but he also slid forward so that his body was now pressing into hers.

As soon as he did so, however, he immediately regretted it, suddenly cognizant of just how close he really was to her, along with the fact that a certain part of his anatomy was now pressing into her rather attractive rear.

Unbidden, this same part of his anatomy decided that it definitely liked what it was pressing into as he could feel it begin to harden and grow.

Please stay down, please stay down, he thought. Think of a naked Uncle Vernon, think of a nake Uncle Vernon...

An image of a time when he was 10 and had caught his Uncle naked came to mind.

It had given him plenty of nightmares as a child, but now it was the only thing that could save him from certain humiliation.

Thankfully it began to go down, and he breathed a sigh of relief.

"What happened Harry? I get unattractive all of a sudden?" Angelina asked.

Great Merlin!

With the realization that she had already caught him, he decided to apologize.

"I'm sorry, Angelina, I just couldn't help it," He confessed.

"Don't be sorry for that Harry," She insisted, "I really don't mind."

"Still I think it might be a good idea if we didn't get too familiar with each other on a first date," He pointed out.

Sliding backwards, he found it was easier to gain control of himself.

After a thrilling night, they descended and stood on the ground facing each other.

"I suppose it wasn't the best of dates, but I hope that you had a good time," Harry told her.

"I thought it was the best date ever," Angelina said, "it was so amazing in fact that I've decided that no other date will ever compare and I'll have to join a convent because it already satisfied every desire that I could possibly ever have."

"Then I suppose I need to tone it down a little," He suggested, "like say something derogatory about you being black or something."

As soon as the words left his mouth, he felt instantly guilty.

"I am so sorry," He apologized, "I mean I know that you're black, not that there is anything wrong with that, but..."

Feeling like he had only made things worse he let out a long exhale of breath and then said, "Okay, now you think I'm a racist."

"I'm not offended Harry," Angelina answered, "besides I'm proud of my heritage and I've learned not to really care about what others think or that they are all out to get me. I'm sure you're not."

"Okay good, because if that were to appear in tomorrow's paper or something...," He confessed.

"Trust me, you're going to get a good review from me," She said, "not that you really care, I'm sure, but it certainly won't hurt your growing reputation either."

"Just what I needed," He said, "another glowing review from a girl who somehow still likes me in spite of myself. I might as well start going by boy-who's-loved-by-girls."

"I wouldn't go that far buddy," Angelina said, "you're certainly cute, and girls are getting more interested in you, but you aren't that hot stuff."

"I had a girl practically kidnap me and force me into a broom closet today," He admitted.

"Well I'd say that she was just plain crazy, but I'm starting to wish that I'd thought of that myself," Angelina joked.

"Well I'd be happy to find a broom closet so that you can fulfill that desire," He joked right back.

"Is that so?" She asked slyly, "then I think I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Did you know that black girls taste like chocolate?"

He immediately dropped his gaze down to her chest.

She didn't seriously mean...

"That is so not what I meant Harry, as you pointed out earlier this is still a first date," Angelina told him, "I meant tasting my lips."

"Oh," He said, feeling stupid again.

Still, she allowed him as he leaned forward as she leaned forward as well until both of their lips met.

Slowly deepening the kiss, they made out for a few precious seconds before breaking apart.

"So how was it?" He asked.

She grinned and said, "Expect a good article about you in tomorrow's paper."

He only groaned.

Author's Note: A few things needing to be pointed out. I felt it would be quite believable for girls to be more interested in Harry now, but most of them aren't irrationally so. More at the levels expected of a young, hot teen celebrity boy who has been getting a lot of very positive attention in the news and from other girls. So no "everybody suddenly loves Harry unconditionally." They like him more so than he was in canon but in most cases not ridiculously so. Almost everyone at this point is still at the infatuation stage. I'm going for a more believable harem story than is normally found. I may or may not succeed.

The other thing is I am currently looking for a beta for this story, preferably one who has a sense of humor, so I don't tell too many lame jokes, but I'd be happy with anyone willing to help. Thanks.


	6. Chapter 6

Author's Note: Thanks go out to my new beta for this story, LuxEterna1 who has already been a big help. Whenever you read something particularly good, they probably came up with it.

Chapter 6

Nobody knows the trouble I've seen

The aftermath to the date with Angelina occurred the very next morning when the newspaper came out.

Angelina also gave him a very good review, causing him to continue getting more attention from girls.

While it was a bit annoying sometimes, he had to admit that he at least liked the fact that it was girls giving him the attention and that it was for a good reason.

However, he also was happy to help out when more than one guy decided to stop him and ask him for dating advice.

Since he felt like he still didn't know a lot about dating, he just tried to tell them to be themselves and try to make the girl laugh.

As for his part, he had a date coming up with Fleur and while he had already had 4 dates so far, he was still quite nervous.

Fleur was older, but so was Angelina and that had gone well, but she might still somewhat regard him somewhat as the "little boy" she had referred to when she learned he had become a champion.

Then there was the fact that she was from France so dating customs might be different over there that he simply just wouldn't know.

Finally, Fleur was widely considered the most beautiful of the girls. Most guys would simply have chosen Fleur in a heartbeat and moved on from there.

Personally, he would have to say that while he wouldn't argue that Fleur was beautiful, beauty only went so far for him and in his eyes there were some other very beautiful girls that he still had to choose from.

Nevertheless he picked Fleur up in front of the Beauxbatons carriage.

"I'm ready," She announced as she stepped forward, "you can take my hand if you'd like."

He took it and began escorting her to the castle.

"I took the liberty of coming up with some back up plans for what we do in case you couldn't think of anything good enough," She then told him.

He was admittedly rather annoyed by her assertion that he might not be able to think of good enough date plans for her and he had no problem telling her so.

"I actually do have plans, and I'll admit I don't like your assumption that I couldn't think of anything good enough for us to do," Harry informed her candidly.

She had the nerve to actually ask, "Are you disagreeing with me?"

If she was going to be mad at him for saying that, then perhaps she wasn't the right girl for him. He had stated his opinion, which he felt he had a right to say.

"Look, Fleur, you're a beautiful girl, and I'm sure that you are used to having great dates, but I really don't feel the need to go all out with you on a first date just so that I can impress you. If you would like to do something however, I'll try to accommodate you, but I already went to a great deal of effort setting up the date as it is."

She smiled and said, "Wow and here I was thinking this was going to be another lame date. Maybe this won't turn out too bad after all."

He could only stare at her looking puzzled and say, "Huh?"

Wasn't she supposed to be upset or something?

She decided to clarify and say, "I should probably apologize now. I'm just used to going on dates where the guy will suddenly forget just what we're going to be doing or have this big extravagant thing go on that he'll still insist wasn't good enough. I'm also not used to them disagreeing with me either on anything even when I'm wrong."

He adopted the expression that Hermione usually had when Ron did something stupid and exclaimed, "Boys can be such idiots sometimes!"

She laughed and said, "Well, I suppose that's just my experience. I suppose it just comes with being a veela. It's not all what people think its cracked up to be."

"Well, at least you're hot," He pointed out, earning another laugh from her.

"Outer beauty only goes so far," She said wisely.

"I totally agree. Admittedly I was rather hesitant about this date, because...well...admittedly you kind of act rather obnoxious in public," He confessed.

"I appreciate the honesty," She replied, "I promise I'm not actually like that, and I was rather hesitant as well."

"I know, I know," He butted in, "I act like a total jerk. Since I'm the boy-who-lived I think I'm the greatest gift to wizardkind."

There were actually people who did still believe that to be the case, but for the most part he ignored them.

" I never thought that. Actually it was because I was worried that it might hurt your chances with another girl," Fleur told him, "thinking about it rationally, you going with me would be great for the short term to help encourage better magical cooperation, but in the long term you might want to select someone else. You're only 14 and I'll be graduating at the end of this year and also going back to France. So a long term relationship being able to be built between us would be highly unlikely to end up working out. Also we really don't know each other all that well and after reading about how your dates have gone in the paper, I would say that you already get along rather well with a few other girls. Now after talking to you, I'm even more convinced that there is someone who you already love."

He nearly choked.

"Love?" He spluttered, "I mean I rather liked all of my dates as people, and they might rival even you in the beauty department, but I would hardly say that I actually love any of them yet."

"It seems to me like you actually do, whether you know it or not," Fleur answered, "I mean you are rather young for real love and I wouldn't say it's had a lot of time to cultivate, but that would be the answer that makes the most sense. You may not realize it, but the entire time we've been talking, I've been increasing my veela allure to see just when it would finally get to you, yet you don't seem to be fazed at all, when you should be reduced to the thinking power of a drooling monkey. The obvious answer then is that you are already in love with somebody else."

"Well come to think of it, there is someone actually," He said, "I'm in love with Mrs. Norris. I've tried to deny it, but I just can't hide it anymore."

Apparently she knew who Mrs. Norris was because she laughed again and said, "I'm pretty sure you aren't into cats Harry."

"Then what would be another reason if I'm not in love?" He asked.

"Well, I suppose there is one other possibility," She eventually admitted.

"I'm gay?" He suggested.

"Make that two possibilities then," She amended.

"You care to tell me just what the other is then?" He asked.

She just shook her head and said, "It really doesn't matter. What does matter is I figure that I can at least help you find out if you actually do have strong enough feelings to love any of them or not. I was planning to help you decide who would be the best to take to the Ball anyway except it will be much easier since I can tell that you won't be a drooling monkey who can only stare at me, or brag that you flew a broom to the moon, are a dragon animagus, has eaten a 50 pound steak in one sitting, can burp all the numbers to infinity, is a magical genie that can grant me three wishes, has slept with over 500 women, or is in actuality a Greek god in human form."

"Guys actually said all those things to you?" He questioned, "it sounds almost like jokes you might tell about an overrated action star."

She merely rolled her eyes and said, "Like you said, guys can be idiots sometimes, particularly in front of me."

He adopted the face that he had seen Ron have whenever he stared at Fleur and said, "I can turn milk into gold."

"Please don't do that," She cautioned, even though she was laughing as she said it.

"You're so beautiful though, I just can't help brag about ridiculous things," He teased.

"Do you really think I'm beautiful?" She asked.

"Let's put it this way," He said, "if I really was gay, you would make me straight."

"Is that so?" She queried slyly, "whatever happened to those other girls being just as beautiful as I am?"

"That's why I could never be gay, I like girls too much," He admitted.

"So which do you think you like best out of all of them?" She asked.

"Are you asking because you're still trying to help me decide who I should take or because you want to know who will be your competition?" He questioned.

"A little of both," She confessed.

"To be honest, I really don't know," Harry answered.

"Well what do you like most about each one?" She asked.

"I like Susan's kindness..." He began.

"...and her boobs," Fleur added.

"Alright, fine, I like her boobs too if that makes you feel any better," He admitted, "but I also like her desire to help others, and from what I know of her, her strong will in trying to do so."

"I also like helping others and I have big boobs too," Fleur pointed out.

"Whatever happened to you helping me find some other girl?" He reminded her.

She grinned and said, "Sorry, I just couldn't help it."

"Then there's Hannah, who's usually kind of shy but also nice, but then she opened up a lot on our date," He replied.

"She's also got some decent curves on a girl her size," Fleur reminded him.

"Are you going to point out all of the physical characteristics that the girls have?" He queried.

"I'm doing it because apparently you won't, and while it shouldn't be the only reason to choose someone, it should be a factor," She pointed out.

Unfortunately, he had to agree with her on that point, so he allowed her to continue.

"Angelina on the other hand is really athletic and competitive. She'd likely always be a fun date no matter what we did," He said.

"That begs the question if you plan on just going with them to the dance or have it become something more," She pointed out.

"Well, with all the trouble I've already gone to just so I can get one measly date to the Yule Ball I'm actually kind of hoping it will become something more," He answered.

"Then deciding who you see yourself being with long term should also play a factor," She suggested.

"If that's the case then I suppose Angelina is out," He said, "She is already in 6th year, so she'll graduate next year. Besides I'm not sure if she would want to be with someone so young that long."

"I wouldn't ever simply assume that," Fleur reminded him.

"Okay, now I'm seriously wondering if you changed your mind and want to convince me to date you or not," He admitted.

"To be honest, I'm kind of wondering that myself," She said, "I didn't actually see myself being with you before, but now I'm really tempted to try and find out."

"How are you going to find out?" He asked.

"By kissing you," She answered while grinning.

"Does every girl want to kiss me on the first date?" He asked aloud to himself.

"I really wouldn't complain about that Harry," Fleur scolded him.

"Right, because it's every teenage boy's dream to get kissed," He said sarcastically.

"Actually I'm pretty sure it is," Fleur pointed out.

"Oh, I guess you're right," He agreed, "I suppose dreams really do come true then."

Laughing again, Fleur stated, "Usually they wouldn't kiss on a first date, but I would guess they're trying to leave you something to remember you by so you'll pick them, as for me, I'm trying to find out if we have chemistry or not."

"You can find out if we have chemistry or not with a kiss?" He asked.

"Yes," She admitted, "for example, I've kissed quite a few guys only on the cheek since in France it is a common greeting. Even then I can tell they are simply not compatible with me."

"So you think I might be compatible with you then?" He asked.

"Only one way to find out," She reminded him slyly.

Pushing out his lips, he leaned in as did she as their lips met.

It was admittedly a great kiss, one that would have caused just about any guy he knew to faint, but for him it was only just as good as the rest of the kisses he had had over the week.

When he finally drew away, however, she was already smiling.

"So are we compatible then?" He asked.

She paused and only stared at him, but the expression on her face was unreadable.

"I think...I think we'd better start walking again," She finally said.

He did so and took her hand again.

They were already almost there, but he was still wondering just what was going through her head.

"So tell me about Padma then," She suggested.

Obviously it hadn't been that great of a kiss to her if she was still trying to help him find another girl.

It was something that shouldn't have bothered him too much as it would only narrow down his choices for him, but for some reason it still filled him with a bit of sadness.

"Padma is kind, smart, funny, fun, easy to talk to, loyal, friendly, trustworthy, and so many more things. Physically if you want to know, I love her incredibly long, shiny black hair that I just keeping want to run my hands through or brush. She doesn't have the biggest curves, but for some reason, what she does have still seems perfect for her. Then there is her flawless, beautiful brown skin, and her beautiful eyes."

"It sounds to me like you already really like her," Fleur pointed out.

"Do you really think so?" He asked.

"You didn't give that long of an assessment of the other girls and I was watching you as you talked about Padma, you had this look in your eyes like you were already taken with her," Fleur admitted, "so how was it when you kissed her?"

"Like feeling like I'd died and gone to heaven, only to realize that even heaven couldn't possibly be this good," Harry said easily.

Fleur paused yet again and then finally said, seeming to resolve herself to something, "then I think you have your answer as to who to choose."

At first, he wasn't so sure she was right, but then an image of him and Padma came to his mind of them together, and suddenly he warmed up to the idea. Him and Padma Patil, yeah, he could see that. At least at the moment, he couldn't think of anyone think of anyone he'd rather be with. Maybe he had made his decision after all.

"What about you though?" He then asked.

"Don't worry about me," She said, "go choose the girl of your dreams. I would however like to finish our date."

"That I can do," He said.

They finally got to the Room of Requirement and as they entered he watched Fleur to see her reaction.

The room had a very French theme, looking very much like an authentic French restaurant.

"How did you manage to do all this?" She asked.

"Magic," He answered, still not wanting to give away his secret.

To his surprise, she leaned in and kissed him again.

"What was that for?" He asked.

"Just making sure that's all," She admitted.

TOOMANYTOOTOOMANY

While Harry and Fleur were still on their date, Padma was currently taking a late night nap in her dormitory so that she wouldn't be so tired when she finished up the article for the paper. It would likely be quite late when they finished.

However, she was woken up to feel something pressing against the side of her bed.

Figuring that it was just her dorm mate's cat who often climbed up on her bed, she wasn't too concerned.

"Tabby, would you please get off," She told it.

Instead of feeling Tabby get off, or perhaps a meow of protest, she heard someone's voice.

"Ooh, I think Tabby is a great name for me," the person said.

It could only be one person.

Using her wand which she quickly grabbed, she uttered the spell that turned on a light.

Sure enough it was Luna.

"Luna what are you doing here?" Padma asked exasperatedly, "Harry shouldn't have finished his date yet."

"I know, I wanted to get here early so we still have time to prevent it," Luna claimed.

"Prevent what?" Padma demanded, still somewhat cranky, "my ability to get some more sleep?"

"Harry is going to ask you to go to the Yule Ball with him tonight," Luna told her.

"If Harry really is going to ask me to the Yule Ball, I would put that under the category of something I definitely do not want to prevent," Padma argued.

"You'll end up dating and then happily marrying him though," Luna insisted, as if this was a horrible thing to have happen.

"Oh I get it," Padma claimed, "are you just jealous Luna and worried I'm going to steal Harry away? If you are why don't you go bother one of the other girls who isn't trying to get some sleep."

"Oh no, I'm not jealous, I love watching you and Harry together!" Luna insisted, "the problem is Harry will fall only in love with you."

"Once again, I fail to see why I would want to try and prevent that, unless Harry turns out to be abusive or something," Padma pointed out.

"Oh no, Harry would be wonderful, you'll both sell ice cream for a living, you'll live in a white house with red trim, a white picket fence, and have a pool with a waterslide. Your first two children will then be named Lakshmi and Smitha."

Padma was actually shocked at the information that Luna had just provided.

"How did you know that I wanted a house like that or that I wanted to name my children that?" She asked.

Luna gave her a look as if she was stupid and said, "I can see the future, of course."

"If you can see the future, then I would say it's a pretty good future for me then," Padma answered.

"Yes, but then Harry dies in a cheese cauldron explosion, and then the world totally falls apart without him," Luna said.

Padma had to remind herself again that Luna was crazy. She probably learned about her fantasy from Parvati or somebody and had added that to her own same delusions.

"Look, Luna...," Padma began slowly, hoping to make her understand.

"You don't believe me do you?" Luna asked, interrupting her.

"No I don't," Padma outright admitted.

"Then I suppose you leave me no choice," Luna stated, as she picked up a fake sword made out of a long balloon and held it pressing against her throat, "Harry needs to ask Daphne to the Yule Ball, promise me that you'll convince Harry to go with Daphne instead or I'll cut my own throat with this."

It would have seemed dangerous if Luna had a real sword, but since it was only a balloon and unlikely to kill her, it just looked rather ridiculous.

"Why does Daphne need to go with Harry?" Padma asked.

"You'll find out," Luna insisted without really answering the question, "now promise me."

"I'd hardly say that you trying to kill yourself with a balloon sword is going to convince me to do that," Padma claimed.

Luna only grinned and said, "I would say that it's already working."

"Trust me Luna, no its not," Padma argued.

To her surprise, Luna pulled the balloon sword off of her throat and then sighed: "I suppose you've beaten me then, you're just too smart I suppose."

"No, it's because I have common sense," Padma told her.

"I know, that's what Harry is going to need from you after he slips on that banana peel," Luna said, once again adding another ridiculous thing that was supposed to happen in the future.

Luna was seriously crazy, no doubt about it. She idly wondered if she should have her committed or not.

However, before she could decide whether she should take her wand and knock her out long enough to go find a straight jacket, Luna left.

Shaking her head, she finally decided to just head on over herself and see if Harry had finished his date yet or not.

She got there several minutes earlier than Harry was supposed to be coming around with Fleur, but she also spotted Daphne standing there waiting as well.

"Did you manage to get in that nap you were talking about having?" Daphne asked her as she came up to stand next to her.

"Yes, but not as long as I was hoping for," Padma confessed, "Luna came into my room, raving about how Harry was going to choose me and that I needed to convince Harry to have him go with you instead."

Daphne had the nerve to actually grin at that and say, "You see, even Luna knows that I'm the right one for Harry."

"I'd hardly call Luna the best support to have, she threatened to commit suicide if I didn't agree, only she was using a balloon sword so it wasn't very threatening," Padma said.

"Got to love that Luna," Daphne told her, "I wish I could have been there."

"You would have just agreed with her, even if you didn't believe it," Padma reminded her, "the worst part was she added in this fantasy that I had that she probably heard from Parvati to try and convince me."

"What was the fantasy?" Daphne asked, grinning.

"Not that kind of fantasy!" Padma yelled, realizing just what she was insinuating.

"Just checking," Daphne confessed, "so really, what was the fantasy?"

"It wasn't about Harry exactly, just what kind of house I'd like to have, and what I'd like to name my kids," Padma admitted.

"I see," Daphne answered, "you know I was actually kind of curious if it was a bit like my dream."

"What dream?" Padma asked.

"I keep having this dream where me and Harry are married. We're older and we have a lot of kids surrounding us," Daphne began, "they all look like mixes of both of us, of my blonde hair or his green eyes, and they all look just so beautiful. I just feel so happy at that moment, more happy than I've ever felt in my life, and I always wake up crying."

"I had no idea..." Padma claimed.

"I suppose that it's just a dream, but it always feel so real, and while I try to deny it, I still want it so bad. To feel that happy in real life," Daphne told her, "it may sound crazy, but I feel like I actually could eventually feel that way about Harry if given the chance."

"Well you do have that date coming up in just a couple of days so you should actually have that chance," Padma reminded her, "that is unless Luna is actually right this time."

"She has to be right sometime," Daphne pointed out.

"Since she also told me that Harry was going to die in a cheese cauldron explosion, I wouldn't hold my breath," Padma answered.

A minute later they spotted Harry and Fleur just now coming back from their date.

"Hey girls," Harry greeted them.

"Hello Harry, you bring us our next victim?" Daphne asked, grinning maliciously at him as if she was eager to torture someone.

"I sure did," He confirmed, looking over at Fleur, "so where's Luna?"

"I think she's still upset about something, but nothing for you to worry about," Padma told him.

Harry said something else, but by then she wasn't paying attention, as she was currently concentrated on simply watching his lips move. They looked so kissable right about then.

She was finally shaken out of her revery by hearing her name spoken.

"Padma?" Daphne asked her, "why don't we go ahead and interview Fleur first."

"That's fine," She agreed.

"Actually I was kind of hoping that I could talk to Padma while you interview Fleur," Harry recommended.

"That sounds like a good idea so we can save a bit of time and interview both of you separately," Daphne agreed, "if you'd like to come with me Fleur."

Fleur followed Daphne into the classroom.

"So how was Fleur?" Padma asked when they were alone.

"It went really well," He answered, "but I don't actually want to talk about Fleur just yet."

"I thought that we were trying to divide and conquer and do both interviews at the same time?" Padma questioned.

"I said I wanted to talk to you," He pointed out.

"So what do you want to talk about then?" Padma asked.

"Fleur and I had a long conversation, and she helped me realize that I fancy a certain girl in particular," He began.

Wait, could Harry really be about to do what she hoped he was about to do. Could Luna actually be right for once?

"I realized that while I like all of the girls and that they all have certain characteristics that I admire, that one definitely stands out, and I couldn't think of anyone better than her. She's incredibly beautiful, smart, fun to be around, and I really feel like there might be something between us. That girl is you Padma Patil."

Filch had better come by with a mop because she instantly felt her heart melt when he said that.

"I'd like to ask you to be the one to go with me to the Yule Ball," He finally said.

It was everything that she wanted, to hear him ask that, not once but twice, only this time having rejected many girls that she would have considered far more beautiful than her. Yet he had chosen her!

She wanted to give him the loudest yes ever, but then suddenly she stopped as unbidden, Daphne's voice popped into her head about her dream and just wanting to be given a chance with Harry.

Forget Daphne, she tried to tell herself.

Another annoying thought popped into her head.

Ah, but how would you have felt if Harry never really gave you a chance?

Of course she'd feel guilty, but being with Harry would surely make that guilt go away.

However, she wouldn't actually be letting Daphne become Harry's girlfriend or anything or even go to the Ball with him like crazy Luna had been wanting her to. It would be just one date and then afterwards there was a very high chance that Harry would still be going with her. Then she also wouldn't have to feel guilty.

If for some crazy reason, he did choose Daphne over her, well then maybe it wasn't meant to be anyway...

Oh shut up brain, she told herself.

"What about Luna and Daphne?" Padma finally asked, "they still haven't gone on dates with you yet."

"I know, but I feel like I've already made the right decision," He informed her.

"Well, I suppose I can't really blame you about not choosing Luna, she's probably too crazy for you, but I think that you should at least give Daphne a chance before you ask me," Padma said.

Oh, she hated herself right then. Why oh why did she have to be noble right then? She should have just said yes and screwed Daphne over. Harry wanted her, not Daphne, not anybody else, and he already knew it. Yet she would also feel too guilty if she did so.

He seemed surprised, but finally told her, "All right, if that's what you'd like to do."

"It's not that I don't want to say yes," She admitted, "you know I'd love to go with you. Nothing would make me happier, but I just feel like it is the right thing to do. Once you decide that I'm still the best choice after your date with her, then you can expect me to say yes."

It was really only a consolation prize in comparison, but she leaned in and kissed him, and he kissed her back.

His kisses always caused her to melt and feel like she wona million galleons. She also felt reassured as they finally broke apart that this would somehow only be one of the first of many kisses that they would share.

Neither she nor Harry heard it, but a crazy blonde Ravenclaw was quietly listening in on their conversation as she whispered:

"Step two is complete, I told you that the balloon sword was working."

Author's Note: While Luna is still crazy, there is actually a method to most of her madness, and she's been effectively manipulating things without anybody realizing it, nor is she as crazy as people think. You're also free to look back and see just how Luna actually achieved what she was really trying to accomplish. Besides I find it highly enjoyable, having Luna be the "master manipulator" in the story, all while claiming ridiculous or actually just seemingly ridiculous claims that actually help move things in the direction she feels they need to go.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

The Beginnings of Friendship

It seemed like Harry was always getting ambushed or bothered by someone on his way to breakfast because the next morning, he was pulled into a classroom by Luna.

"Good morning Harry!" Luna shouted at the top of her lungs.

"Good morning to you too Luna, but you don't have to shout," Harry argued, still rubbing his ears.

It was simply too early to be shouting, and if he was still only half awake before, he wasn't now.

"I'm just so happy to see you that's all," Luna said, actually sounding very happy, "do you remember what today is?"

He pretended to think for a moment, then said teasingly, "Hmm, is it Free Pie Day?"

"No, but I wish it was," Luna said wistfully, "now stop teasing and really guess."

"Today is the day I have a date with you," Harry finally replied.

"Good job Harry, I just knew you would get it right," Luna said, sounding very pleased, "you deserve a cookie."

Instead of it being just an expression however, she literally pulled out a cookie and handed it to him.

"Er...thanks," He said, "I'll save it for later."

Privately he wasn't too excited to eat it.

Not that he thought that Luna was trying to poison him or anything, but glancing at it he could tell that it was oatmeal raisin, and he had to question the sanity of anyone who thought that raisins inside of a cookie was actually good.

Chocolate and more chocolate was where it was at, he thought.

"Our date is going to be so much fun!" Luna said, excitedly, now bouncing on her toes.

Luna certainly was energetic today, he noticed.

Yet as he watched her bounce up and down, he couldn't help noticing her breasts bounce. They weren't huge or anything, just average although he supposed big for her slender frame, but still they were breasts moving up and down and he couldn't help but keep his eyes on them.

Curse his teenage boy hormones.

"Ooh, are you watching my boobies bounce Harry?" Luna asked him, obviously noticing what he had been fixated on.

"Sorry, I couldn't help it," He apologized, forcing himself to look away.

"Oh, no, don't worry about it," Luna reassured him, "Sarah and Jessica like it when you look at them," Luna replied.

"Huh?" He asked confused.

"My boobies' names of course," Luna stated, "so what are we doing on our date?"

"I haven't decided yet," He answered truthfully.

In all honesty, it was getting hard to come up with new date ideas that he thought each girl would like and Luna in particular was rather difficult.

"How about we play Would you rather?" Luna suggested.

"I haven't heard of it, how do you play it?" Harry asked.

"You ask people if they would rather do one ridiculous thing or another, I've been dying to play it with you. The nargles and hefflahumps aren't too good at it," Luna told him.

"Um...sure, I guess we could do that," Harry said.

He supposed if Luna really wanted to play a game, he didn't have a problem with that.

"Then we can have ice cream," Luna recommended excitedly, "cockroach cluster flavored."

"Sorry, I'm afraid I'm all out of that kind of ice cream," He informed her truthfully, "how about cookies and cream?"

Luna seemed disappointed but said, "All right, but it isn't as good. Can we at least have worms on it?"

Okay, ew.

"I don't think that would be a good idea," Harry said.

"Gummy worms silly," Luna answered, "what did you think I meant real worms? Now that would be disgusting."

She let out a laugh as if she had made a joke.

Right, a girl who didn't seem to have any problem with cockroach flavored ice cream, but did with having worms on it.

Well, to each his own, he supposed.

"Well I suppose that should be a fun date then. I don't think Padma will have a problem with that," Harry told her.

"Neither will Daphne," Luna declared.

"Daphne isn't going on our date though," Harry reminded her.

"She is now," Luna replied.

"When did you ask her?" Harry asked.

Luna put her hand on her head and said, "I knew I was forgetting something, silly me."

He thought about it for a moment and then decided it was technically still Luna's date. If she wanted Daphne to come too, he supposed he didn't have a problem with that.

"All right, if you want to invite Daphne you can," Harry told her.

"Thanks Harry," Luna said gratefully, "I'm glad I'm going to be marrying you."

With that note, she turned and ran outside the room.

Still shaking his head at Luna's antics, he headed down to breakfast and took a seat next to Hermione at the Gryffindor table.

"Fleur gave a pretty good dating review," Hermione informed him as she handed the paper over to him.

As he read, he set the cookie that Luna had given him aside and started dishing up some real breakfast, namely cinnamon rolls and chocolate donuts.

She did give him a pretty good review and said some awfully nice things about him, he thought as he read. The article was rather well written too.

After finishing reading it, he got up to go congratulate Padma for another good article, leaving his mostly finished plate of food along with Luna's still uneaten cookie.

Tapping her on the shoulder, he said, "I just wanted to congratulate you on the article."

She blushed and said, "it was nothing. Daphne and Luna did a lot too."

"Still I just thought I would anyway," He claimed lamely, now starting to wonder why he had come all the way over here just for that.

The answer wasn't too hard to figure out however. He really just wanted an excuse to see and talk to her, despite only having seen her just last night.

He had to admit to himself that he was really starting to like her.

Now struggling to think of something to say to break the awkward silence, he asked: "Would you like to sit with me during breakfast?"

"I'd like that but are you sure we're allowed to sit at our unassigned tables?" Padma asked worriedly.

"I don't see why not," He pointed out, "however if it bothers you so much, I guess I could come over here."

"Okay," She told him somewhat reluctantly, although he could tell she really did want him to.

"Great, then let me just go get my bookbag and my plate and I'll be right back," He replied.

Heading back to where he was sitting however, he found that the spot he had been sitting in was now occupied by Ron.

While he had heard that Ron had been suspended for attacking him and Professor McGonagall, he hadn't known exactly when he would be back.

Apparently that time was now.

As he got closer however, he realized that he and Hermione were having an argument.

While concerned for Hermione, he also wasn't sure if he should intervene or not, as he felt that his presence may just make things worse.

What clinched it however was when he saw Ron shove Hermione.

It didn't seem to actually hurt her, but it was enough to set his blood boiling.

"Ron, that's enough," He yelled from behind him as he got closer.

Ron turned to look at him, still looking quite angry.

"So there you are Potter," Ron said, choosing to use his last name as he spat it out, "just who we were talking about. I've been reading all about you in the papers. The famous Harry Potter dating many beautiful girls who all seen to fawn over him like dogs. It must be so hard for you, dealing with all of that."

"Ron, I know you're upset..." Harry tried to say.

"UPSET!" Ron exploded, "I'm beyond upset! Do you know what Fleur says about you in the paper?"

Ron picked up a paper and read aloud, "Harry is the sweetest, nicest young man I've ever met and the best date I've ever had."

His probably now former best friend then said, "I was supposed to hear that from Fleur! She was supposed to be mine! You said that you would help me get a date with her, but then suddenly as soon as I come back, I find you've already snogged her and every other girl that thinks you're all that."

"I didn't mean for things to happen this way," Harry tried to explain, "I'm sorry."

"Yeah, well sorry doesn't cut it," Ron insisted, "just leave me alone, I don't want to be friends with you anymore, not after what you've done."

Ron turned back to eating and Harry noticed Ron was currently eating off of the plate of food he had had before, although he had a feeling Ron knew that and didn't care.

He would have simply left and gone and sat by Padma, it was just that his bookbag was now underneath Ron's feet.

"Ron, can I at least...?" He began again to Ron.

"Oh so now you want something from me?" Ron asked angrily, "well isn't that nice? Well I've had just about enough of you..."

Ron pulled out his wand and pointed downward at him before he could react or pull out his own wand and yelled, "Reduct..."

Yet before he could finish, Ron's eyes went listless before he ended up leaning towards the table collapsing his head right on top of his plate of food.

Fortunately he had put a lot of oatmeal onto his plate that broke his head's fall.

"What happened?" Hermione asked as she checked him over, "he seems to have fainted."

"He tried to curse me, I know that, but I don't know how he fainted," Harry claimed.

"It could easily be magical overload, which is quite possible if Ron hasn't used any magic in awhile which he hasn't all week and I suppose it could have also just been stress after being so angry," Hermione suggested, "I don't see any other obvious reasons."

"That has happened to my uncle more than once," Harry admitted, not bothering to mention that it had been while angry at him for doing accidental magic as a kid.

Even he himself had fainted more than once last year when he had kept running afoul of dementors so he could see it happening. Since it had already happened to him, he didn't bother to make some sort of joke at Ron's expense.

Professor McGonagall then came up behind them.

"I was watching the whole thing as soon as you and Ron started arguing," She confessed, "I wanted to make sure that he wasn't going to try anything after coming back from suspension. He promised he wouldn't but obviously he hasn't learned his lesson. He didn't get a chance to finish his spell fortunately, but that spell could have killed you, especially at such close range. I'll be having a talk with Dumbledore as to what to do with him. If and when he does end up coming back to school we'll have to be sure such behavior doesn't happen again. I'm sorry it came to this."

"It's all right Professor, I think it might be a good idea for me to make new friends though. I just don't see us moving past this," Harry replied honestly.

He was already thinking about the fact that perhaps Ron hadn't been a very good friend to start with.

Professor McGonagall nodded approvingly and said, "From what I've been reading in the papers, I'd say you've got quite a few prospects for new friends. I have lived long enough to appreciate having many people of the opposite gender as merely friends."

It was an interesting remark, and he pondered it as she levitated Ron out and got everyone who had come over to see what was going on to return to their seats.

"Not that I'm not grateful, but do you really think Ron just collapsed because of stress?" Harry asked.

"You should just be grateful you didn't get your bits blown off like Ron intended. That would have been bad," Luna said, having just now entered the conversation along with Daphne.

He assumed that they had come over once they heard Ron yelling and making a scene.

"Yes, a real tragedy," Daphne agreed, "it would be a great loss to womankind."

"At least it's all going according to plan," Luna stated.

"What plan?" Harry demanded.

She grinned and said, "All right, I'll tell you my plan Harry. After you have sex with me."

Surely she couldn't be serious...

"I would say that was highly inappropriate Luna," Hermione admonished, "you both are too young to be having sex or even asking for it."

"You won't be saying that next year," Luna singsonged.

"Why does Harry have to have sex with you in order to know your plan?" Daphne asked.

"Since I'm a sexy beast," Luna replied, still grinning, "the only way to find out a sexy beast's plans is by having sex with them."

"Okay, I'm not sure whether to consider you a slut or just plain crazy," Daphne surmised.

"Ooh, thank you for the compliments Daphne, I think you're a slut too," Luna answered.

Daphne seemed more taken aback by her remark to be mad, but still she told her sarcastically, "Yep, Luna can see the future all right. According to her we are going to be best friends, and calling each other sluts is a really good way to begin a friendship."

"Oh, good, I think so too," Luna agreed, totally missing the sarcasm.

"Well at any rate, I'm not having sex with Luna or anybody," Harry claimed.

"Really? Anybody ever?" Daphne asked, trying to sound surprised, "if that's the case then I rather think maybe Ron really should have blown your bits off."

His face reddened as he blushed at this comment.

"Ooh, no I could never let that happen to Peter," Luna insisted.

"Is that the name that you have for my..." Harry began before remembering what he was asking, "on second thought never mind."

Everyone laughed at that, other than Hermione who seemed rather annoyed by all this sex talk.

"Harry really doesn't need all this. I don't see why we can't be more mature," She reprimanded them all.

"Oh don't be such a wet blanket Hermione," Daphne urged.

"Hermione just doesn't realize she's actually a hot biscuit," Luna claimed.

"I'd hardly call myself a hot biscuit," Hermione answered.

"Don't be mad, somebody just called you hot," Daphne reminded her.

Hermione blushed but then said, "Yeah, well try getting someone who isn't another girl or crazy to say that."

"All right, you're hot Hermione," Harry told her.

He had meant it as a joke, but she blushed as red as Ron's hair when he told her that.

"Actually if you just wore some less shapeless clothes, you'd probably look pretty good," Daphne commented.

"Hey by the way," Luna announced, "Daphne and Hermione, you should totally come with us on our date with Harry."

Hermione suddenly got flustered again.

"A date? Like a real date? With Harry?" She asked, now looking scared for some reason.

"Come on Hermione, I can't be that scary of a date," He commented.

To him, it really didn't bother him since he had already been on so many dates with girls and Hermione he just considered his best friend. It would seem perfectly natural for them to do something merely as friends.

"Oh, I have a date with Harry tomorrow myself and I'm absolutely terrified," Daphne teased putting on a mock terrified look, "it would be like going on a date with the boogeyman."

"Actually I've found the boogeyman to be quite friendly once you get past the fact that he's so hairy," Luna claimed before pausing and asking him, "how come you aren't so hairy, harry? That's kind of a bad name for you."

"I'm told that my father apparently wanted to name me Gaylord instead because he thought it was funny so I consider myself lucky," Harry answered.

He neglected to mention that his on the run godfather Sirius Black had supplied that information. He had also mentioned that his mother had had the sense to immediately nix that idea.

Daphne made a face and said, "suddenly Harry sounds like a lovely name."

"I quite agree," Hermione said, shuddering as she imagined having to call her best friend that, "well at any rate, its not because I'm scared, it's just I already have a date for the Yule Ball and would prefer to wait until then."

That made sense, he supposed.

"I'd hardly call that a date anymore anyway if all 4 of us are going to be going with Harry," Daphne pointed out.

"Then we can all go as friends, it'll be nice to have friends to play with," Luna commented.

"We were planning on playing some games so it should be fun, especially with more people I'd imagine. It's kind of Luna's thing so I don't have a problem with who she invites," Harry said.

"All right, then I guess that could be fun, I'll go," Daphne agreed.

"I guess I will too then," Hermione answered.

TOOMANYTOOMANY

Later on Daphne was just now headed to lunch when she spotted Luna standing against a wall simply staring off into space.

"Hey Luna," Daphne greeted.

Luna didn't seem to notice her for a second but when she finally did she exclaimed, "Oh hey busty."

"Did you just call me besty or busty?" Daphne asked.

"Both would work," Luna claimed fairly.

She wasn't exactly lacking in that department, she had to agree, nor did she take offense to it.

"So how is seeing the future going?" Daphne asked.

Luna leaned in conspiratorially and said, "Do you want to know a secret?"

"What?" Daphne asked.

"I gave Harry an oatmeal raisin cookie with a sleeping potion in it this morning knowing that he wouldn't eat it, since after all oatmeal raisin cookies are yucky, and then leave it right where he was sitting. I also knew that Ron would be coming back and see the cookie and eat it instead, timed so that Ron would try to curse Harry while Professor McGonagall was watching yet fall asleep just as he was finishing casting it so Ron would get in trouble but Harry would be safe. Had I not, Harry would have had his bits blown off and I couldn't let that happen."

Daphne was completely surprised by this. Not only did Luna at least appear to be able to see the future and prevent a potential catastrophe, but the entire time she had explained much more rationally than Luna normally acted. Her eyes were no longer glazed over and for once she was looking steadily and directly back at her.

However it didn't necessarily mean that she believed her yet as Luna had already claimed some pretty crazy things in the past.

"So why tell me?" Daphne asked.

"Since we're busties, that's why," Luna pointed out.

"Sorry if I'm a little skeptical," Daphne answered, "but if you really can see the future like you claim, what is going to happen next in this little plan of yours you've apparently got going on?"

"You're going to go tell Padma in about 10 minutes that you think that she should be the one to date Harry," Luna claimed.

"Yeah, sorry, you're wrong because that's just not going to happen. I like Padma and all, but I still think I should get a chance to see if I can win Harry over myself," Daphne reminded her.

"Harry's mind is already made up though," Luna said, "last night I overheard him ask Padma to be the one that he takes to the Yule Ball."

Daphne's heart sank at hearing that. She had really been hoping to at least have a chance before...

"However I managed to convince Padma beforehand that she should turn him down so that you would get an opportunity to try and change his mind.

Daphne stepped back in disbelief.

"She actually did that?" She questioned.

"Absolutely," Luna confirmed, "the problem is Harry's mind will still be made up."

Daphne allowed this to sink in. So she supposed it wouldn't do much good anyway.

"What do you think I should do?" Daphne asked.

"If we hadn't had this conversation or Padma had immediately accepted, you'd try and fight for him anyway, which would only get you mad at Padma and drive a wedge between you," Luna said.

Daphne had to agree that probably would be what she would do.

"The other option is for you to support her which will cause Padma to be quite grateful and help her not feel threatened by you. You'll become good friends and over a course of events, you'll both be dating Harry."

Daphne was once again surprised.

"What?" She asked.

"It's all part of the plan, you don't need to worry about it," Luna tried to reassure her, "just go find Padma who will be heading to the Gryffindor common room to ask her sister for something to wear. Offer her one of your nice dresses."

"Those are the ones my grandmother made for me!" Daphne exclaimed.

"You want Harry don't you?" Luna reminded her.

"Yes," Daphne agreed.

"Then do it, you'll be glad you did," Luna told her, "now you should go."

"I'm still confused about this whole thing," Daphne insisted.

Luna simply rolled her eyes and said, "tell me about it. After all the things I keep seeing, I could easily be driven mad."

"You aren't really crazy are you?" Daphne queried.

"Probably yes, just not as much as people think," Luna admitted, "some of it is actually just for show so people won't take me seriously. I can't seem to resist blurting out what will happen so in order to prevent them getting freaked out by it I blurt out ridiculous stuff too. Trust me when I tell you, it would not be good if Harry and the other girls actually believed me and knew what their future was."

"What about me though?" Daphne asked.

"Oh, you're still going to be skeptical for awhile too, but at least I don't foresee you messing anything up by knowing. In fact, you knowing will be necessary for the plan to work," Luna claimed.

"What makes you think I want to help you though? I don't want to be in a harem," Daphne pointed out.

"Oh not yet you don't," Luna replied, "however you'll change your mind and I'm confident that you'll help me. I don't really have any other options so I have to trust you. I know that we're going to end up becoming best friends in the future so that will have to be enough for now."

"I still have a lot of questions," Daphne admitted.

"They'll have to wait," Luna answered, "you need to get going?" Luna asked.

"What?" Daphne questioned.

"You need to go to the ant convention, remember?" Luna reminded her, switching to ridiculousness again.

Although she wasn't entirely certain what was going on, she decided to see if Luna was correct and if she would end up finding Padma where she said she would be.

As she did, she reflected on what Luna had told her and if she would actually follow her advice.

She ended up finding her just in front of the Gryffindor common room causing her to think of even harder about what Luna had said.

"Hey Padma," Daphne greeted.

"Hi, I was just going to go talk to Parvati and see if I could borrow any clothes of hers," Padma admitted.

Yet another thing that Luna had gotten right.

"If you'd like you could borrow something of mine," Daphne offered.

She had decided that she would at least offer to let her borrow one of her dresses. She could at least do that.

"Are you sure?" Padma asked.

"Absolutely," Daphne told her, "just come back with me and wait outside the Slytherin common room and I'll bring out a few outfits that I think you might like."

"Thanks Daphne," Padma answered gratefully.

She followed her back and then waited while Daphne went into her room to go get them. She pulled them both out.

One was more formal and then the other was more casual.

However she reminded herself that they actually no longer fit her anyway.

When she reemerged, she held them both up and Padma was instantly amazed by how beautiful both were.

"I really couldn't wear these," Padma claimed, "these are way too nice."

"They no longer fit me," Daphne claimed.

She had just made, at least to her, a rather generous offer and she wasn't about to have Padma say no to it.

"Thank you," Padma said gratefully, selecting the more casual one, a gorgeous light blue color.

Daphne found however that she could no longer wait and simply had to know.

"Did Harry ask you to be the one to go with you to the Yule Ball last night?" She asked.

Padma certainly looked surprised by the question but when she recovered, she answered hesitantly, "How did you know?"

"Does it really matter? I'd really like to know what you told him," Daphne said.

Quite honestly, if Padma had said yes to Harry, Daphne probably would have slapped her, however Luna was once again correct.

"I told him no so that you would have your chance with him, I felt like you deserved at least that much," Padma said.

Personally, she really couldn't figure Padma out. Had it been her, she would have said yes immediately.

"You do realize just how stupid that was right," Daphne pointed out.

"Serves me right for trying to be nice to you I suppose," Padma answered bitterly.

Now Daphne felt guilty.

"No, actually it was very sweet. I certainly wouldn't have done it," Daphne reassured her.

"What would you have done if I had said yes?" Padma asked.

"I'd probably have kidnapped you, tortured you for awhile, killed you, then fed you to Hagrid's blast ended skrewts," Daphne replied.

"Maybe it wasn't such a stupid thing to do then if I didn't want to die an early death," Padma pointed out.

"All jokes aside, I am grateful, but I also want you to know that..." Daphne paused even as she said this because she really didn't want to say it, but knew she should, "you should go accept anyway."

Oh, that was tough to say, but she also recognized that it was smart, whether Luna suggested it or not. After all, what hope did she have in changing Harry's mind?

Whenever he and Padma were together, she could always sense that they had a connection and now that both of them had figured that out, it would be difficult to persuade Harry otherwise.

At least this way she would be able to maintain a good reputation. If she decided to get mean about the whole thing, it just wouldn't end well.

Padma again looked surprised but then asked, "What about you?"

"Harry has already made his choice and I think it's a good one, just don't question it anymore because this is hard enough for me as it is," Daphne replied.

"You do realize I already totally owe you," Padma answered.

Daphne let out a small grin and shrugged and said, "Hey, I'm a Slytherin, that's what we do in getting people to owe us."

"Well, then I guess I can expect to have to name my firstborn Daphne or something," Padma suggested.

"Oh no, I'll cash in on your debt long before that," Daphne insisted, "perhaps work as my slave for the day and call me mistress."

Padma laughed and said, "Yeah, I'm not doing that."

"Hey a girl can dream can't she?" Daphne said, "now then about tonight..."

TOOMANYTOO

Harry waited at the bottom of the stairs to the 4th year girl dormitory for Hermione to come out for their...date, group of friends getting together, whatever.

At any rate, he finally spotted Hermione coming down the stairs.

She had dispensed with her usual hogwarts robes for a tight shirt that emphasized her modest bust and blue jeans that hugged her hips.

It was definitely different from what he was used to seeing Hermione look like and he realized at that moment Hermione was actually quite attractive.

"You look really good Hermione," Harry told her.

She blushed and said, "Thanks Harry, I just decided to wear something a little different and borrowed some clothes from Parvati."

"Well you should totally start wearing clothes like that more often. Krum won't be able to keep his eyes off you," He commented.

She frowned and said, "Right, Krum, of course."

"So should we go then?" He suggested.

"Yes," Hermione agreed.

He probably would have given Hermione his arm to hold but since this wasn't really a date anymore and she would be going with Krum to the Yule Ball, he chose just to walk alongside her.

They met Luna in front of the Room of the Requirement, where they were supposed to be meeting up with the other girls.

"Ooh, Hermione, you're such a hot biscuit now!" Luna greeted her.

"Thanks Luna," Hermione said, accepting it as a compliment now, "you look pretty good yourself."

Luna did indeed look pretty good.

She was wearing a short yellow dress that showed off her long legs and cleavage.

"Ooh, and Harry is staring at my boobies again," Luna observed.

Darn it, why did Luna always have to catch him? Couldn't he ogle attractive girls with them at least not blurting it out.

Well she had said he could...

He unabashedly continued to stare at them.

Hermione however swatted him on the arm and said, "Stop staring at them."

"What?" He argued, "she said I could."

"I don't mind Hermione," Luna told her, "you can stare at them too if you want."

Hermione suddenly looked unsure how to reply to that, but fortunately Daphne and Padma arrived just then.

"Hey everyone," Padma greeted.

Harry immediately noticed that both girls also looked rather good. So much eye candy could make a guy delirious, he thought.

Daphne was wearing a green dress that emphasized her large chest, and Padma wore a light blue dress that did the same with her average sized one, her long dark hair currently draped over one shoulder.

"Hey girls," Harry greeted right back.

"So what exactly are we going to be doing then?" Daphne asked.

"Let's go in and see," Luna suggested.

They all entered the Room of Requirement and Harry was curious just what type of room Luna had selected.

As they entered, it looked like the room in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory that Dudley had watched over and over again when he was a kid which always resulted in him convincing his parents to take him to the candy store halfway through.

Everything seemed to be made of candy. There were giant cotton candy beanbag chairs, a large chocolate fountain in the center of the room, various life sized animals made out of chocolate, some which he recognized as owls, cats, or toads, but others he had no clue about as he assumed that they were some of the animals that only Luna believed in, and lining the walls were candy dispensers.

"What on earth?" Hermione asked in amazement.

"Don't you just love it!" Luna enthusiastically said as she pulled off what appeared to be a cobweb made out of licorice, complete with a marshmallow spider.

"Well there goes my figure," Daphne immediately said as she reached into one of the candy dispensers and began eating some sort of fruit candy.

"I could gain 5 pounds easily tonight," Padma declared.

"Don't worry, Harry likes fat girls too so you should be okay," Daphne pointed out, "me it'll probably just disappear or go right to the right places."

"She's right, let's just enjoy it, but I wouldn't recommend coming back too soon," Harry told Padma.

As for himself he began eating as well while Hermione finally gave in and began eating herself.

"All of this is going to go straight to my hips," She insisted.

"Oh, don't be such a spoil sport, we can have some fun once in awhile," Daphne claimed.

After they had all gotten full on candy, they sat down in the cotton candy bean bag chairs to play Luna's game.

Once Luna had explained the rules, Padma started: "Would you rather get stuck in the hospital wing for a month or have detention with Snape for a week?"

"That's a tough one," Harry admitted, "I've been in the hospital wing enough to appreciate wanting to leave, but Snape's detentions are killer too. I'd say Snape though because at least then the detentions would be only in the evenings."

"Detentions with Snape definitely," Daphne answered, "he's never given a Slytherin detention, but if he did, I'd imagine that it would be super easy like babysitting the Gryffindors that he put in detention."

"I like the hospital wing," Luna said, "Madame Pomfrey touching me always makes me ticklish."

Daphne poked Luna in the arm causing her to giggle.

"She actually is ticklish," Daphne confirmed as she continued to tickle Luna continued to not be able to resist laughing.

Even after Daphne stopped, Luna was still laughing.

"I'm not even touching you!" Daphne insisted.

"I know but it's just so much fun to laugh!" Luna declared.

Okay, weird, but probably true, Harry had to agree.

"Would you rather sleep all night in the forbidden forest or in the owlery?" He then asked.

"I'd say owlery but then I'd likely wake up with owl droppings all over me," Padma pointed out.

"Yeah, owl droppings apparently don't taste very good," Luna agreed, sighing.

On it went as they continued to ask questions.

Luna suggested they eat ice cream while they did so, but they were all already too full from eating candy.

It was then suggest that they play Exploding Snap, which they did, along with a few other games that he had never played before, but evidently wizards did including Duck, Duck, Dragon and Magical Chairs.

He knew the muggle equivalents to these games, but evidently in Duck, Duck, Dragon you had a spell put on you that would cause smoke to start blowing out of your nose if you were it and in Magical Chairs, which they used cotton candy pillows for chairs, their chair would light up when you sat in it, causing the cotton candy to turn blue.

Luna claimed it then tasted like blueberries, but he didn't really think so.

All in all it was turning into a very fun evening. No dating pressure, just a bunch of friends getting together and having fun.

Author's Note: I actually happen to know one very unlucky guy with the name of Gaylord so it actually is a real name that admittedly awful parents have given their children. It's usually pronounced gay-lerd though which still doesn't help when people, particularly children mispronounce it.

Luna as mentioned before, is not as insane as people think, yet still crazy. She was however forced to let Daphne know that in order to achieve her plans for the future and it will inevitably bring them closer together as eventual best friends.


	8. Chapter 8

Author's Note: Interestingly enough, Luna is actually based off of a girl I knew in junior high back when I was her age so her behavior is actually believable to me. However she will still be very much Luna. A lot of what she does wouldn't make sense but in reality it was very well thought out.

Chapter 8

Discoveries

Harry was just thinking the date was about to end when Luna suggested: "we should totally brush each others' hair!"

"Ooh, then I dibs Harry to brush mine!" Padma immediately claimed.

"I get him next!" Luna quickly said after.

Daphne then turned to Hermione and said, "I suppose that leaves us with each other."

"Mine is kind of hard to brush," Hermione answered.

"Actually I think I might have a solution to that problem," Daphne told her.

Both girls went into a corner of the room while Luna went off to go play with some of the chocolate animals before her turn and Padma went into another corner while he followed.

He could already sense that she probably wanted to have a private conversation with him, but he couldn't say for sure what.

At any rate, Padma managed to get a brush out of her purse and she handed it to him.

"How do I do it exactly?" He asked tentatively having never done this before.

She gave a few instructions and he started at the bottom as she suggested.

As he started, he was once again struck by just how beautiful Padma's hair really was.

It was very long and shiny, descending to the bottom of her butt.

"You have really beautiful hair," He commented.

"Thanks Harry," Padma replied, "I really hoped you would like to do this."

"Well I am Harry after all," He pointed out.

"Isn't that joke getting a little old?" She asked.

"Not if it's true and I think your long hair makes you look very sexy," He admitted.

"On second thought, I'm rather glad you're named Harry then," Padma answered.

"I thought you would see things my way," He agreed.

As he was trying to get a snarl out at the bottom, trying to be gentle in case he ended up hurting her, he accidentally touched her butt with the back of his hand.

He'd better apologize or she was totally going to think he was a pervert, he reasoned.

"Sorry," He apologized as he stopped brushing.

"I'm sure it was just an accident," Padma said, seeming to dismiss the whole incident.

"I might do it again though," He reminded her nervously.

The fact that he actually wanted to "accidentally" touch it again weighed on his mind. This whole dating thing was harder when he was in close proximity to rather interesting body parts.

She paused for a second then said, "Then you have my permission to do so."

"You mean..." He tried to ask, hardly able to believe it.

"NO! Not like that Harry," Padma explained, suddenly flustered herself, "I meant if you did it on accident, sorry to disappoint you but I think simply grabbing my butt and feeling it up is a bit forward for a couple that isn't even really dating yet."

He would have agreed with her, but his mind was now focused on the last word: yet. Did that mean that she planned on having them be a couple?

Was he supposed to already know that for sure?

While he chose to say nothing, Padma then said, "If it's accidental though, it's okay, although I'm sure that you are now freaking out about having a chance to touch my butt."

"I'll bet you're the one freaking out about the fact that I'm brushing your hair and that I just touched your butt," He slyly answered.

"Oh, you're good!" She agreed, "fine, so what if I am?"

"You know what Daphne would say right?" He pointed out teasingly, "she would say that you secretly want me to touch your butt."

"Maybe," She responded, not denying it, "all right, if you want to you can. For just a second and make sure the other girls don't notice."

After making sure Daphne, Hermione, and Luna were all distracted, he quickly put his hands on her bum before quickly pulling away.

"Well?" She asked.

"Best second of my life," He claimed.

"I would certainly hope so," Padma stated, sounding pleased with his answer.

He got back to brushing her hair, half admiring her hair and still half thinking about what Padma's butt had felt like.

A few minutes later, Padma said: "I was also hoping to talk to you about something Harry."

"Go ahead," He urged.

"I had a talk with Daphne before this got started and she's decided to bow out and let me have you," Padma said.

He was surprised, but also couldn't resist quipping, "let you huh? Well what if I've changed my mind already? What if I've already decided on another stunningly beautiful girl with long beautiful black hair, gorgeous eyes and brown skin?"

"You had so better not be referring to Parvati," Padma said warningly.

Actually Parvati hadn't even crossed his mind when he had said that. Parvati was nice, but she was no Padma, and she was the one he was interested in.

"Parvati hasn't kissed me though or let me touch her bum," He reminded her.

She laughed and said, "So that's all I needed to do to win you over huh? Good thing Parvati never figured that out. I should have let you do both ages ago if that's the case."

Deciding to be more serious, he told her, "I also like your mind, how it's fun to talk to you, to be around you..."

"Keep going," She urged, clearly enjoying the praise he was lavishing upon her.

"You're also funny and friendly, and I really feel like I can trust you with things," He finished.

"That'll do for now," She answered, "you can tell me more at the ball."

"I haven't even asked you again yet," He pointed out.

"You've already asked me twice," She reminded him.

"Well if you've gotten tired of me asking and won't let me ask again, I suppose I'll just have to settle for another girl," He reasoned.

"Then yes, please ask me," She insisted.

"Padma Patil, will you go to the Yule Ball with me?" He asked.

"Yes!" She immediately said as she went and gave him a hug.

"Just a hug?" He questioned.

"We're supposed to kiss during the date," She pointed out.

"That hasn't stopped you before," He reminded her.

Nevertheless, she gave him a big kiss, which he quickly returned.

"I love kissing you," He admitted.

"So do I," She agreed.

"Can we just skip the ball and kiss the whole time?" He asked.

She seemed to ponder this for a second and then said, "You yet again prove that you always have such great date ideas."

"I'm glad you agree," He replied.

At that moment, Luna came over to them.

"Have you got done touching Padma's bum and kissing her so I can have my turn?" She asked.

Padma immediately blushed and said, "You saw that?"

"Why would I want to miss it?" Luna queried as if she had been expecting it to happen.

"Did you really see that beforehand?" Harry asked.

"Why does everyone keep asking me that?" Luna asked, "all right, if you must know, I keep doing it just for attention. It's also the same reason why I keep acting crazy. I'm merely a social misfit who doesn't know how to interact with other people and so cover it up by coming across as crazy and claiming ridiculous things, such as the ability to see the future."

"That would make sense I suppose, but is that really the truth?" Padma queried.

"Professor McGonagall says that's the case, and Professor McGonagall is always right," Luna answered.

Neither of them got to answer because Daphne and Hermione then came over.

"So what do you think?" Daphne asked.

Harry looked at Hermione and was shocked to find that her chestnut colored hair was no longer bushy but now nice and straight descending to midback.

"Wow!" Both he and Padma said at the same time.

Hermione blushed as she twirled her hair as if she was in a muggle hair commercial.

"Your hair looks gorgeous," Padma claimed.

"Thanks," Hermione replied gratefully.

"I taught her a spell that my sister uses for her hair," Daphne admitted.

"Astoria's hair is usually bushy?" Padma asked.

"Her hair is actually a bushy chestnut color like Hermione's, but she straightens and uses a hair dye potion," Daphne answered.

"I thought all Greengrasses were straight haired platinum blondes?" Padma asked.

"Yeah, I don't know where it came from. I keep telling her that she's adopted," Daphne replied.

"I'm adopted too!" Luna claimed.

"Really?" Harry asked.

"Yep, daddy says that I'm too normal to be his daughter," Luna told them.

"I don't see how he could say that," Harry said.

"You obviously haven't met Luna's father," Padma pointed out, "I met him once and it was certainly...interesting."

No offense to Luna, Harry thought, but if Luna was considered too normal for her father, he wasn't sure he wanted to ever meet him.

However to be fair, now that he thought about it, he wasn't sure he wanted to meet any of the girls' parents he hadn't already met.

"That reminds me," Harry asked Daphne, "how is your mother doing by the way?"

"She's doing great," Daphne answered, "I've been sending her what we've been writing for the articles everyday and it's been getting her a lot of attention. Newspaper sales have actually been higher this week than they ever have. I guess we aren't the only ones who want to know just who our favorite celebrity is dating."

"It's almost a shame it has to end. I rather enjoyed all of my dates and I loved spending time with each beautiful girl," Harry admitted.

Padma elbowed him and said, "Ahem."

"However I am looking forward to the Ball and going with a very special girl," He said, "I am pleased to announce that I've made a decision. I'll be taking Padma with me."

"Congratulations Padma on being Harry's first girlfriend!" Luna congratulated her.

Harry noted that Padma did not bother to correct her, something that he did not have any objections to either as he was hopeful that they would continue dating even after the Ball himself.

Hermione however seemed concerned as she asked Daphne, "What about you?"

"I already talked to Padma about it beforehand and we both agreed that Harry has already made his decision and that we are both willing to accept it," Daphne answered resignedly.

"What about your date with him tomorrow though?" Hermione questioned.

"We can just skip that I suppose," Daphne replied.

There was a brief pause then Padma finally said, "not if you don't want to. You already were looking forward to it, so I think you should go."

"Are you sure?" Daphne asked, "I'd hate to take away from anything that you and Harry have now."

"Yes, I really think so," Padma said.

Daphne still looked reluctant, despite the fact that he knew she wanted to go, so he decided to step in.

"Well, I suppose you just don't want to go on a date with a manly stud like me," Harry suggested.

Hermione rolled her eyes at that, but Daphne, Padma, and then Luna laughed.

However Luna continued to laugh even after the two girls had stopped.

Over her laughter, Daphne stated, "yep, you're right. How could I possibly resist you? I'm putty in your hands."

Luna however continued laughing until Padma asked, "why are you still laughing Luna? It wasn't that funny."

She stopped but then said, "oh did someone tell a joke? I thought everyone was laughing just because laughing is fun. Besides I already know Harry is a stud."

"Oh, so do we but it doesn't mean we can't poke fun at him," Daphne replied.

"I see," Luna said, as she went and poked her finger at Harry's shoulder, "here's some fun Harry."

"Yeah, that's not fun," Harry answered as he moved away from her and closer to Padma to avoid her poking him again.

"Is the mean nasty girl hurting you Harry?" Padma asked in a mock tone.

"I think I need you to kiss it all better," He informed her.

Padma in response leaned in and kissed his shoulder.

"It feels better now. Your kisses apparently have healing properties," He insisted.

"I'm guessing that means you're going to be trying to get injured a lot then, particularly on your lips," She suggested.

"We can only hope," He agreed.

Daphne grinned and said: "I'd be happy to go and beat you up Harry if that's the case."

"Okay," He answered.

At the moment such an idea sounded actually appealing if that would be his reward.

Then Daphne hit him the arm.

"Ouch!" He yelled, before turning angrily at her, "what was that for?"

"You told me I should do it," She pointed out.

"That was before I realized you could hit so hard," He answered, still nursing his arm, "I'll probably never be able to use this arm ever again."

Being actually quite used to getting hit from growing up with Dudley he was used to much worse, but it didn't mean that he couldn't pretend otherwise for his own benefit.

"You'll be fine, you big baby," She claimed, "I didn't hit you that hard."

In response he let his arm dangle uselessly as he pretended to try and fail to lift it.

"Nope, it will have to be amputated now, only thing I can do for it," He answered teasingly.

Daphne grinned, realizing he was only playing with her and said: "Then I suppose I'll just have to hang around you for the rest of your life so I can do everything that would require two hands to do."

"Was that meant to be crude?" Hermione demanded of Daphne.

"No," Daphne replied, now grinning wider, "I hadn't even thought of that. Just where is your mind at Hermione for you to think that it could be crude?"

Hermione majorly blushed at that.

"I suppose I wouldn't mind performing such two handed tasks if they were required," Daphne claimed.

"Fortunately you won't need to," Padma stated as she leaned down and kissed his shoulder, "there it should be all better."

He tested his arm, proving that he could suddenly and miraculously use it.

"Wow, Padma, you saved it, it's a miracle," He suggested.

"Always happy to help," She answered.

With that out of the way, Daphne, Padma, and Hermione went to go discuss a few things, leaving him alone with Luna.

"Ready to brush my amazingly sexy hair?" Luna asked.

"Sure," He answered, taking the brush from her.

He began brushing Luna's hair and was suddenly confronted with the same problem that he had with Padma as Luna's hair went to the bottom of her butt as well.

"Are you worried that you're going to touch my butt like you did with Padma?" Luna asked.

How did she always know?

"Nope, because I know you won't mind if I do," He pointed out.

"Harry!" Luna declared in shock, "you have a girlfriend now, you can't go touching other girl's bums."

"Ah, but according to you, you are going to eventually be my girlfriend and then wife too, so technically your butt will be mine anyway," Harry pointed out, quite pleased he had thought up such a response.

She giggled in a way only Luna could and then said, "Okay, that works for me."

Nevertheless, he did his best not to touch it as he brushed as in reality he really did feel obligated to just Padma.

However he did so, just with the back of his finger, but still it made contact.

Luna however appeared not to notice. He breathed a small sigh of relief.

A few minutes went by in silence until Luna said: "You should take Daphne to Hogsmeade for your date tomorrow."

"It's not a Hogsmeade weekend though," Harry reminded her.

"Just ask the warden to let you out," Luna recommended.

"You mean Dumbledore?" Harry asked, "I'd hardly classify him as a warden."

"We're all prisoners in here though Harry," Luna pointed out, "Dumbledore won't even let me wear clothes made out of walnuts or bring wolves into the castle."

"I'm pretty sure there is a good reason for not allowing both of those things," Harry declared.

What he didn't say was that wearing clothes made out of nuts was well...nuts.

"Is Dumbledore really such a bad guy?" Harry reminded her, "a bit out there and has an obsession with candy, but so do you."

Luna sighed and said, "I suppose you're right. Dumbledore isn't really that bad, I suppose. He'll even be a help later on."

"Well at any rate, I don't see the need to be asking him for special permission to go to Hogsmeade. I don't need to go that badly. I suppose I could probably get some flowers or something for Padma, but I could probably just owl order those," He told her.

"You've got to though, Harry, it's very important," Luna insisted.

"Why is it very important though?" He asked.

"I can't tell you that," Luna claimed, "however if you don't ask him, I'll tell Padma that you touched my butt like you did hers."

"I barely did and that was an accident though!" He insisted.

"Fine, then I guess you won't mind me telling her then," Luna said, "I'll also tell her that you said that my butt was yours."

"That was..." Harry started to argue, before realizing he actually had said that.

"So what is it going to be?" Luna asked, "asking Dumbledore or death?"

"I'm not going to get killed if I don't," He pointed out.

"Yes you will," Luna told her.

He supposed Padma could kill him before he had a chance to explain himself...

Yet as he thought about it, he realized that it wouldn't be too terrible to at least ask. If he said no, then he said no, if he said yes then he would get to go to Hogsmeade with Daphne, which he supposed wouldn't be too bad either.

"Alright fine, you win," He said.

"Ooh yay Harry, you won't regret it," Luna said, giving him a hug, "just don't kiss and tell."

Luna however did not bother to explain what that meant and he had learned by now she wasn't likely to tell him.

TOOMANYTOOMANY

During breakfast the next morning, Harry waited until Dumbledore got up to leave after eating and then caught up to him in the hallway.

"Professor Dumbledore?" He asked.

"Yes Harry?" Dumbledore said, turning around to face him.

"I was wondering if I might ask you something?" He asked.

"Ask away, but I can't guarantee if I can provide an answer.

If it is however if my experiment this morning trying oatmeal and pumpkin juice together yielded an enjoyable result, I would have to answer in the negative," Dumbledore replied.

Leave it to Dumbledore to try odd food combinations...

"Actually I was wondering if I could have permission to go to Hogsmeade today," Harry declared.

He expected Dumbledore to give him a lecture on how he shouldn't be giving out special privileges, and at first it seemed like he was going to do just that.

"I can't just go giving out special permission for students to leave the school whenever they feel like it," Dumbledore answered before getting a twinkle in his eye, "unless it was for a very good reason."

"If it was a life or death situation would that work?" Harry asked.

"I'm afraid not," Dumbledore responded gravely, although he still had that twinkle in his eye.

He could tell that Dumbledore knew that he hadn't been serious about that.

"Then I suppose I had better start giving my final goodbyes," Harry countered, "what if it was to get my favorite headmaster a present?"

"I am afraid such a present required in order to gain permission would always cost one galleon more than you ever possess," Dumbledore told him, "although I daresay more than a few have tried and failed to bribe me."

His actual reason now sounded more lame, but he decided to finally come out with it anyway.

"Actually I just wanted to go on a date with Daphne Greengrass there," Harry informed him, "however now that I think about it, it probably was too trivial to ask.

"Don't be so sure, now that is another matter entirely," Dumbledore claimed, seeming to be thinking it over, "I would hate to be the one to ruin possible love."

"I'm sure that plenty of other people have asked you the same thing," Harry pointed out.

"You would actually be the first in all my years as headmaster, I suppose because they all figured I would say no," Dumbledore told him, "if I were to say no, then I would be proving them right wouldn't I?"

"I suppose so," Harry agreed, although surprised by Dumbledore's logic.

It was logic only Dumbledore could have.

"Then I suppose that I must then say yes," Dumbledore declared.

Hardly able to believe that he had said yes, Harry thanked him.

"It was my pleasure," Dumbledore told him, "provided that you don't tell anyone besides your date where you went.

Otherwise I daresay I shall be deluged with additional requests, considerably shortening the time I have to simply sit at my desk to think up evil schemes to make the students lives miserable or wait for people to come bother me as the students no doubt assume I occupy most of my time with.

We wouldn't want to give them the wrong impression."

"No sir," Harry agreed.

Dumbledore scrawled on a piece of paper with a quill, both of which he produced seemingly from thin air with his wand and then handed it to him.

"That should dissuade anyone from Hogsmeade from questioning you why you were there," He told him, "however if they ask it is to get some supplies for me."

"Won't they be suspicious if we don't have any such supplies?" Harry asked.

Dumbledore grinned and said, "That's why you've so graciously volunteered to get some for me."

Harry looked down at the piece of paper to find most of it was a shopping list.

Great, he thought. Dumbledore was using him to run his errands for him.

"Be sure to get the big jars of lemon drops," Dumbledore told him, now smiling.

TOOMANYTOOMANY

He next had to find Daphne, which he found just finishing eating.

"I'm here to kidnap you," He declared, coming up from behind her.

"Ooh Harry, you could give a girl the wrong impression," Daphne answered, "will it involve me being tied up?"

"Fortunately not, since you'll need full use of your arms and legs where we're going," He informed her.

"I'm intrigued now, just where are you whisking me off to?" She asked.

Since her housemates could potentially be listening into their conversation as some of them probably were, he said: "Oh just a nice trip to the restricted section of the library."

"I do like restricted things," Daphne agreed, "very well, let's go."

He helped her up out of her seat and together they headed off.

As soon as they were away from any prying ears however she asked: "So where are we really going?"

"I thought I already told you," He answered.

"You might have fooled anyone listening in, but not me," Daphne pointed out, "now spill."

"We're going to Hogsmeade," He told her.

"We're breaking out again?" Daphne asked excitedly, not the least bit concerned about breaking such a rule.

"Actually in this case, I got Dumbledore to agree to let us go," He informed her.

She looked actually slightly disappointed at that, but still excited to go.

"Very well, then lead away," She replied.

They headed out of the castle and down the pathway to Hogsmeade.

Since it was December and it was currently snowing, nobody was around other than some tiny specks far away on another side of the castle who appeared to be in the process of building a snow fort.

They continued on until they reached the gates which appeared to be closed.

"So what do we do now?" Daphne asked.

"I'm not really sure, Dumbledore didn't tell me," He replied.

"How about a password?" Daphne suggested, "open sesame!"

The doors stayed shut, not that he was surprised.

"No, that isn't Dumbledore's style," Harry said, "if it was some sort of password, it would be a type of candy."

Both he and Daphne began saying names for different types of candy, before Harry looked down at the piece of paper that he had been given again for a clue.

"Blood pops?" Harry muttered aloud.

The doors immediately swung open.

"Should I be worried about Dumbledore's eating habits or is Dumbledore actually a vampire?" Daphne asked.

"Luna will be pleased to know that if the last one is true," Harry replied.

They both headed through the space now vacated by the open doors before they closed right behind them.

Once they got inside the town, he suggested they go for a butterbeer, which Daphne immediately agreed to.

Inside the Three Broomsticks, which was much less crowded than he was used to, they ordered two butterbeers.

Madame Rosmerta didn't even bat an eye when she saw they were there to his surprise.

When she plunked their drinks down, she said: "I remember the time when your father used to come in here on the weekends. I used to slip him drinks under that invisibility cloak of his."

"Oh, we have permission to be here," Harry claimed.

"Right you sure do," Madame Rosmerta agreed, winking at him.

Obviously she didn't believe him, but didn't seem to care anyway.

While they sipped their drinks, he chatted with Daphne for a bit.

She was admittedly a very fun girl to have around, and even if he wasn't going to be dating her, he could definitely see her as becoming a good friend.

When they finished, Daphne mentioned wanting to go clothes shopping so they headed to the town clothes shop.

Daphne went to go try out a few outfits while he decided to see if he could find some socks for Dumbledore and Dobby, who both seemed to have an obsession with them.

He honestly would not be surprised if Dumbledore started paying Dobby in socks so he would have an excuse to then get more of his own.

While he was doing so, currently looking over a pair of socks with a picture of cats on it that evidently made meowing sounds when it got too smelly, he heard a thud just to his left.

Turning to look at the sound, he spotted none other than Millicent Bulstrode standing over a box of socks that she had probably just dropped.

When she realized he was staring at her, she immediately tried to turn away and shield her face with his hands, but it was already too late.

"Bulstrode?" He asked, "what are you doing here?"

She finally turned towards him, but still refused to look at him by only looking down at the ground.

Nevertheless, she still towered over him.

At 6'5 she was huge for a 14 year old girl, but her wide body made her even bigger, bigger than anyone at Hogwarts besides Hagrid and currently Madame Maxime.

One of the many rumors about her was that she had giant or troll blood in her.

He noticed that she was wearing an employee's uniform.

"Wait a minute...do you actually work here?" He asked.

She merely shuffled her feet.

At that moment, Daphne came over with a few outfits in her hands.

When she saw Millicent, she stopped, also saying aloud Millicent's name.

"Hello Daphne," Millicent managed to reply.

Daphne was no doubt also noticing Millicent wearing a uniform.

"So is this where you've been going off to recently?" Daphne asked.

"I got a holiday job here, but please don't tell anyone," Millicent begged, sounding worried.

"Why would we do that if you don't want us to?" Daphne questioned.

"I'm not supposed to be here. I've been sneaking out down a secret passageway, but if you turn me in I'll lose this job," Millicent replied.

"How did you manage to even get this job?" Daphne asked, "they aren't allowed to be hiring Hogwarts students except over the summer break and only when they turn 16.

"They never guessed I was that young on account of my size," Millicent answered.

At that moment, another man wearing a store uniform came by.

"What are you doing standing around? Get back to work!" He yelled angrily at her.

"She was just answering some questions for us," Daphne told him.

"I'm sorry but Mike here just doesn't have the mental capacity to answer questions," the man told her, "if you have any questions however I would be happy to answer them for you."

"Actually I think she'd be a lot better at answering them than you," Daphne insisted, clearly mad at how he was referring to Millicent, "such as if you had any underwear that was stain resistant to blood during periods."

The man immediately reddened.

"At any rate, I don't think you have any right to treat her like that anyway," Daphne pointed out.

"I'm the manager, I can do whatever I want," the man claimed, "besides who else is going to hire her? She's already damaged plenty of merchandise by knocking it about as she walks through the store, and she doesn't have the brain capacity to do anything beyond the simplest of tasks!"

"Maybe if you actually gave her a chance you would realize that she is actually very smart," Daphne argued before turning back to Millicent.

"You know, you really don't have to put up with this," Daphne reminded her.

Millicent was still staring at the floor but said: "I was really hoping to get some money to buy a dress for the ball."

"Not off of what you already owe me for breaking that crate of merchandise yesterday," the man told her, "besides I'd likely have to custom make it for you and do you know how much time and material it would take me? At any rate, I don't see the point, since no one is going to want to go with a woman who looks like a man."

"That's it!" Harry yelled, "you have no right to treat her this way! I'll buy her a dress then if that is what she wants, but it won't be from you and she won't be working here anymore."

"Let's get out of here," Daphne told Millicent.

Millicent seemed surprised, but she pulled off her employee's shirt and tossed it right at him.

The force of the projectile caused the man to lose his balance and he ended up falling backwards into a bin of men's underwear.

"You know," He commented to Daphne, "I think you just got a topic for another news article."

"I think I did," Daphne agreed, "how about The Naked Truth of Manager at Clothing Store?"

While they couldn't implicate Millicent for obvious reasons, he was sure they could come up with a way around it.

Daphne, followed by Millicent who was now clad in the shirt that she had been wearing underneath headed out.

He was quick to follow.

When they got out, however, Millicent for the first time actually addressed him and asked tentatively, "Did you really mean it about getting me a dress?"

"Of course," He told her.

"I really couldn't do that," She said.

"I would say that it was high time that you actually had something nice to wear," Daphne argued, "you're always wearing such frumpy and manly clothes."

"I just can't afford anything better or find anything in my size that isn't men's clothing," Millicent argued.

"Then we'll just have to custom make it," Harry countered.

"I'm going to take her to get a makeover as well," Daphne insisted.

"You really don't have to be so nice to me, I could never repay you," Millicent reminded them.

"I was already going to get a makeover anyway and I have a coupon for a two for one," Daphne lied easily.

"I've simply got more money than I know what to do with," Harry claimed, choosing to use the rumor of him being filthy rich to his advantage.

"Yep, Harry probably even owns the other clothing store, if not half of magical Britain, he's so filthy rich," Daphne answered.

"I wouldn't go nearly that far, that's just ridiculous, the wizarding world would have stopped me from having such a huge monopoly long before that and I would expect that people would treat me better if most of their parents worked for me," Harry pointed out.

"Still it would be fun for you to go around everywhere as if you owned the place like muggle rich people do," Daphne said, "you could wear a crown and purple robes and order people's heads to be chopped off.

"Yeah, your representation of a muggle "rich person" is a bit out of date," Harry answered.

"What a shame," Daphne said, sounding disappointed.

After some protesting, Daphne finally managed to convince Millicent to come with her and they went inside the beauty parlor while he set out to get the things that Dumbledore had requested.

It took longer than he would have liked. Dumbledore had a long list and he muttered unhappily more than once about Dumbledore tricking him into running errands for him.

When he got the last thing, 3 jars of Dumbledore's blessed lemon drops, he headed back to the beauty parlor, his arms now full of bags.

Yet after failing to find them, he assumed that they had gone to the other clothing store at Hogsmeade to get Millicent her dress.

When he arrived, he found Daphne standing outside the dressing room.

"The tailor just got done with her dress and now Millicent is trying it on," Daphne answered.

"That fast?" Harry asked.

"We have magic Harry," Daphne pointed out.

He only had to wait a few seconds before Millicent emerged.

When she did, his jaw immediately dropped.

If he hadn't known that it was Millicent, he would have assumed that she was somebody else. He could never have believed a person could change so drastically.

Her face alone was totally unrecognizable, with any unwanted facial hair now gone, her skin now beautifully smooth and white, her lips rosy red, eyebrows fixed, and wearing eyeliner that prominently displayed her gorgeous green eyes.

Her hair, instead of being in a tight bun at the back of her head had been let down to fall well below her shoulders, brushed out to acquire a sheen to its dark brown color.

As for her figure, well it would have caused any man to drool.

No longer encumbered by shapeless and ugly men's clothing, her before unknown curves were now on display as she wore a Slytherin dark green dress.

It was hard to miss as a guy her now most prominent feature:

He had been under the assumption that Susan Bones was the bustiest girl in their year, but it was simply because he had never known what Millicent had under her robes.

While a big girl, he couldn't deny that her breasts still looked huge inside the dress only mostly containing them, the tops of them displaying a very generous amount of cleavage

The size of them simply astonished him and beyond anything that anything he would ever see at Hogwarts, putting to shame any girl that would consider herself busty.

The dress then tapered down over her belly before thrusting out again to cover her prominent hips.

He was so stunned as he admired the change and admittedly her very attractive figure which he couldn't manage to tear his eyes away from that he was unable to say anything.

Daphne, who also appeared to have lost the ability to speak for a moment, then said: "Wow, you look hot!"

Millicent blushed.

"I swear I had no idea you were hiding that figure under your robes," Daphne claimed, "I always figured that you always changed in the bathroom because you were embarrassed, but if you were to get naked in our dorm room, every single one of us, including me would have reason to be embarrassed. You even put my curves to shame!"

Millicent blushed still deeper.

"What do you think Harry?" Millicent asked him nervously.

"Wow," He managed to say.

"Just wow Harry? Couldn't think of anything more descriptive?" Daphne teased, clearly aware of just how much of an effective Millicent's drastic makeover had had upon him.

"The things I would like to say about how you look I'm sure I'm not allowed to say to another girl while I'm on a date," Harry claimed.

"Good answer," Daphne agreed, "if you wear that dress back to Hogwarts, I'd bet you get date offers within minutes simply by walking down the halls!"

"I'm still too big for any guy," Millicent argued.

"There are plenty of guys, I'm sure, who rather like girls who are much bigger than them," Daphne pointed out.

Daphne, still raving about Millicent, went with him as he paid for the dress.

He had to admit, even though it took a good chunk of change from him, that it felt good doing something nice for someone else, as he could tell already just how happy it had already made Millicent, who had thanked him profusely.

Millicent then insisted on not being a third wheel while they were still on their date and headed back to Hogwarts via the secret passageway underneath Honeydukes, taking Dumbledore's things with her so he wouldn't have to carry them.

That left him and Daphne the rest of the day to finish their date.

Mostly they just browsed around various stores, but neither of them were in any hurry to end it.

When night finally came and shops began to close, they finally headed back.

Just outside the gates, Daphne stopped and said, "I had a great time Harry."

"So did I," He agreed.

"That was such an awesome thing you did back there, buying a dress for Millicent," Daphne answered.

"The same to you for getting her a makeover," He countered.

"You know, I really feel like I've been making a difference since I started associating with you," Daphne claimed, "what with what we did for Hannah and now Millicent, and then what the articles me, Padma, and Luna have been writing."

"I agree," Harry answered.

"Can I just say that I really really wish right now that this didn't have to end?" She said.

"Well I suppose I could think of something to make the date longer if you'd like," He offered.

"That's not what I meant," Daphne told him, "I could say its just all the good we've been doing, but honestly I mean us. I like you even more now than before and I wish that you were my boyfriend so we could spend many days like the one we just had."

He didn't really know what to say to that, so he just let her keep talking.

"I want to be able to talk to you, to laugh and joke around, to hold hands, and..."

At that moment she unexpectedly leaned in and kissed him.

He was shocked but he also couldn't bring himself to draw away as she continued to kiss him and him responding in kind.

In the back of his mind he knew that this was wrong. He had already chosen Padma and he was quite happy with that choice.

Back when he had been dating all those other girls before choosing Padma and kissed them it had been different, but this...

This was different.

Besides, what made this kiss so hard to break from. Was Daphne as good of a kisser as Padma?

He had to admit that she was and he also knew that as soon as he broke from it, he would never have it again.

Finally however he did so.

"I'm sorry, I just can't do this," He claimed.

"I know," She agreed, seeming to understand.

"Then why did we do it?" He asked.

"I couldn't help myself and neither could you," She answered, "I know you liked it just as much as me, but that doesn't mean it's the right thing to do."

"I'm still going to want it again," He admitted.

"How about we kiss again? Just once to get it out of our system and then never do it again?" She suggested.

While reluctant, he agreed.

Yet as their lips met and they began to kiss again, he realized:

This is going to be harder than I thought.


	9. Chapter 9

Author's Note: By this point I would imagine some of you are at least a bit confused about a few things, particularly with Luna's plan. While it's meant to be a bit confusing as it is more fun to figure out for yourselves just what is going on and how each action that Luna takes has such an impact, I think it is also important for all that to be understood and I think enjoyable to find it all out and just how many seemingly random events were actually orchestrated by Luna. Sort of like reading the end of a mystery novel, although in this case we've already got enough for an entire chapter.

Plenty of unanswered questions will be answered including just how Harry so amazingly got so many dates, why Luna is even trying to create a harem, and how she is doing it, and even how Millicent ended up at the clothing store.

I hope you enjoy it.

Chapter 9

Luna was currently in her own special little corner of the Room of Requirement, looking over her various instruments she had collected, or her "experiments" as she preferred to call them.

This was an area she had spent a great deal of time in since her first year at Hogwarts when she had discovered this place.

She quickly fell in love with it as she felt it was her own special hideout, free from bullies and other nasty people.

More importantly, it was a place that she could work on her experiments in privacy without having to worry about if they were discovered.

Even if someone did get inside with her experiments still there, they couldn't exactly see them.

That was what her spectrespecs or her special glasses were for, allowing her to see them as long as she had them on, a nifty little trick she employed with many items she didn't want stolen from bullies, which was becoming a common occurrence and the only upside being that she had an excuse not to wear her rather ugly and uncomfortable Hogwarts robes when they all got stolen.

Poor Professor Flitwick had actually fallen off the stack of books he usually stood on when she came into class clad only in a bikini.

Her cloaking spell and the glasses that went with them were her own invention and was something that she was rather proud of.

While some people thought she was stupid because she acted weird, she wasn't in Ravenclaw for nothing and was actually very smart.

Or at least she liked to think so anyway.

A few other inventions lay mostly abandoned nearby such as a crumple horned snorkack catcher and a wrackspurt collector, both of which she intended to use once she had the time to search for them, but was simply more focused on her most important and special project.

That would be her grand plan for Harry and getting him a harem.

Most girls would have found it odd that she wanted to be part of a harem, but it wasn't something that even she had automatically wanted.

Back when she was a little girl, like most girls she wanted actual friends, yet her parents' various attempts at having playdates with her and other girls her own age had all ended in the other girl deciding that she was just too weird and that they didn't want to play with her anymore.

While she still had her parents, she had to admit it got rather lonely as a child, especially after her mother died and her father made himself far more busy with work in order to cope.

The only exception to her lack of children her own age to play with was Ginny Weasley, but she seemed to regard her as mentally retarded, like she was too stupid to be able to do anything right.

She had long since gotten tired of the little baby voice Ginny usually used when talking to her.

It was actually a common thing to have happen to her, where people assumed that since she was odd or possibly crazy that meant that she wasn't all that bright, which led to many treating her like she was mentally challenged.

While Ginny seemed to feel that she was performing some sort of charity work in being willing to play with her, she found it highly insulting.

Furthermore Ginny seemed to think she wasn't capable of making good decisions and so always was the one who decided what games they would play.

Invariably the games she always seemed to want to play involved pretending to be married to Harry Potter.

There was nothing really wrong with such games, like many wizard children Luna had been told more than once about the Harry Potter story and had even imagined herself meeting him someday and finding out if he was really like what he was in the stories.

After a few times of playing these games however Luna decided that she wanted to be the one to be married to Harry for once but Ginny would never let her causing her to think that Ginny was rather selfish.

If she had been in charge of how the game went, she would be willing to share Harry and have them both be his wife, yet Ginny rejected this idea when she had presented it, pointing out that a boy could only be married to one girl.

When this had led to an argument, leading to Ginny's mother suggesting she go home in order to avoid a fight, she had finally relented and allowed Ginny to continue playing that way.

While there were problems with Ginny, it was still better than not having anyone to play with at all.

It was then that she decided that one of the best things in the world would be to have lots of friends to play with where she could decide how they played Harry Marriage and allow all of them to be married to Harry so that no one was left out and it was fair.

Even though she realized now that that was the thoughts of a little girl, that thinking had shaped her quite a bit.

When she was 9, she started having visions of the future, and after confiding them to her mother and after the visions she had started occurring, her mother had realized that she was psychic.

Such individuals she was told by her mother were rather rare and her powers being as strong as they were had caused her mother to caution her not to tell anyone else as some people might try to take advantage of her.

She had promised not to tell anyone else like a good girl, but it had unfortunately been one of the last conversations that she had had with her mother when she died in her accident.

It was a horrible event, but impacted her greatly.

She had the vision of her mother dying just before her actual death yet when she went to go warn her, she ended up arriving just fast enough to see it all happen again in real life.

It was then that she promised herself that she would improve her abilities so that she could save other people and no one else had to lose a mommy or a daddy like she had.

Over the years she had kept her promise to her mother, regarding it as very important all the while secretly working on improving her powers.

Unfortunately she also had, like many seers, a lack of control over blurting out what she saw in her visions or the future, but at least managed to stay mostly conscious of her surroundings when doing so.

She had managed to mask that by also blurting out random, totally insane things as well so that people would simply pass her off as crazy.

While this had the effect of losing any remaining chance she had at making any real friends, her visions had proved this wouldn't actually have happened anyway any time soon.

Starting school at Hogwarts only led to additional failures to make friends, although there were some girls she liked more than others who were generally at least kind to her. These included Daphne Greengrass and Padma Patil, but since they were in different years and in Daphne's case a different house it would be rather difficult for them to become actual friends, especially since she wasn't actually sure how to make friends in the first place, having never successfully made one.

Her previous attempts with other girls such as offering to let them see her toenail collection had only led them to being grossed out.

Harry however she had concluded was rather nice after spying on him on occasion and having many of her visions include him, which allowed her to see how he was doing or would do. Admittedly she had far more visions about him than anyone else, leading her to conclude that he was somehow very important or would at least be very important to her later on.

He didn't realize it but he seemed very much like the hero she had been told about in the stories her mother had told her, although they were admittedly greatly different from the stories Ginny told about him.

Some of these seemed to a real shame, as Harry apparently did not have a pet talking dragon or a flying unicorn as pets, or owned his own castle twice the size of Hogwarts made totally out of chocolate, or had a solid gold toilet that spewed out rainbows every time you flushed.

(The twins had told them that last one.)

After having had so many visions about him, far more than about any other person she had ever known and finding out so much about him, she had decided that he would make a great friend, boyfriend, or even husband causing her to develop an even stronger crush than back when she was a child.

The problem was however that she was too afraid she might scare him away with her weirdness or start blurting out the future if she ever got near him.

What had finally caused her to act was a vision she had had of the very distant future, later than she had ever had before and in this vision Harry was married to Ginny and already had 3 kids. In it he had been wishing all 3 of his children off to another year of Hogwarts at the train station.

Even though she wasn't particularly pleased to learn that Ginny would be the one who ended up achieving her lifelong ambition of marrying Harry due to how she had always treated her, she wasn't spiteful enough to want to change it as at least Harry appeared to be happy in the future and she supposed Ginny deserved to be happy too.

Yet it was what she had seen a few weeks later as a continuation of that vision that had caused her to want to try and change it, where she saw Harry while in the middle of a raid of some bad wizard's house, had ended up dying in a cheese cauldron explosion.

Such an event so concerned her that she had ended up blurting this out on many occasions, even during class, but fortunately the cause of his death seemed so totally ludicrous that nobody actually believed her.

She was so distraught that she immediately decided that she had to try and prevent it, but that was easier said than done, as actually changing the future was a bit difficult and always had consequences.

During her time of concern in how to prevent this incident, she had had another vision, this one she recognized as merely a possible future where she and many other girls were all married to Harry.

They had all seemed so happy and while it might have seemed rather odd to other girls, to herself she decided that would be a great future.

She would be married to Harry, her secret crush, and the other girls appeared to be very good friends of hers.

For a girl who had never actually had friends, this seemed like heaven to her to have so many other girls who seemed to genuinely like and accept her as a real friend.

Furthermore she was reminded of the games she used to play with Ginny, and that sharing him just wouldn't be so bad especially with other girls who could be her real friends. It seemed like a great deal of fun for her and the ultimate solution to her loneliness.

She had decided to make that vision a reality if she could.

However she soon learned that it would require a great deal of effort, beyond anything she had ever tried before, having long ago given up on actually trying to change the future ever since her mother's accident.

Yet she felt she was up to the challenge and over the past year she managed to create a device that would hopefully help her.

She called it the wicked cool, super awesome, whirly, swirly thingy or as it would later be known as...the timeline.

It essentially was composed of a pensieve that she stored her visions in and a long gold cord that attached to another device of her own creation.

What it did was help funnel her visions so that she knew how to achieve that goal, although there were drawbacks.

First of all she could only manage to get a clear enough picture to be able to know what would and needed to happen only a few steps ahead and the machine was rather temperamental, nor did it like being hit when it wasn't being nice enough to work properly.

Speaking of which, Luna paused as she scolded the machine as it had decided to go to sleep.

The problem with using magical devices is that all too often they developed a mind of their own, much like the Weasley's old car that had gone wild and which she had befriended in her constant forays into the Forest.

"We can't go sleep now," She told it, "we've still got work to do."

The machine seemed to grudgingly turn back on as she patted it.

"Good work," Luna congratulated it, "now here's another memory of a vision for you."

Luna put her wand tip against the side of her head and withdrew a silvery strand of memory, causing her to giggle. It felt ticklish when memories came out.

She placed the memory into the pensieve portion and then waited. It would likely take awhile for it to finish inputting the memory.

It was designed with one main objective: how to make her harem vision become a reality and would do so by providing her information on what needed to get done next by her at the other end with a list of options on how to accomplish it.

What she then decided to do was then up to her based upon her options and she chose the ones she liked the best.

She could for example have just gotten Harry to ask permission from Dumbledore earlier to go to Hogsmeade when they went to the Daily Prophet, but it was much more fun to simply sneak out.

The machine wasn't perfect but it at least did enough.

Most things that would lead to her vision becoming a reality seemed to happen without her direct influence but there was a great deal that she needed to do herself in order to keep it going.

It admittedly took some effort to be able to do everything without being discovered to be influencing them to the extent that she was as she knew that no one else would understand just yet.

Even Daphne, who she knew would one day be her best friend, was only ready for so much.

Point zero or the moment when everything needed to start changing happened over a week ago now, back a day before Harry had gotten all of those dates.

The crucial thing that changed everything was actually homework, quite possibly the first and only time that homework had ever really mattered despite what Hermione might think.

You couldn't learn what was truly important in books, although they could be entertaining, particularly pop up books.

However homework was indeed important in that case as when she had gotten the Twins to play a prank on Snape, it had put him in a particularly foul mood during the lesson that Harry was in with him later, leading to giving him and the rest of the class extra homework.

As a result, Harry had not had time to reflect upon the fact that he did not have a date yet and so had not taken the opportunity to ask Parvati Patil to the Yule Ball as he was originally going to and had had to focus on homework instead.

Due to that despite still working on his Potions homework and going to the library to try and get additional information for it, he had had his conversation with Hermione causing her to try and get a date for him with Hannah Abbott.

The twins would never have been in the library either, having no reason to as they never actually studied or made any real effort on their homework, yet they had been hiding from Filch after deciding to skip out on the detention that Snape had given them the day before for the prank they had pulled on him.

They then would never have passed the word on about Harry not having a date to Lee Jordan had that not happened and Harry would never have gotten dates with either Angelina or Susan.

With Harry getting himself a date with Padma and not Parvati, the latter of which was not desperate enough to go with Ron, that had left Ron dateless and instead of having a conversation with Harry that had psyched him up into actually asking Fleur himself due to Harry being busy with homework, Ron had instead earned Hermione's ire at deciding to procrastinate yet again and put off his homework until the last minute.

While this had happened many times before, it was enough to push Hermione over the edge and decide just which male friend she truly fancied more, putting her permanently on team Harry.

Harry's ensuing fight with Ron after unwittingly getting a date with Fleur Delacour after Ron got him to ask her to the Yule Ball for him had only strengthened Hermione's stance when it came to both Harry and Ron.

It was truly amazing how just one instance of a prank being pulled on a teacher and being given extra homework could have upon the future, yet that was only step one.

Luna paused from her thinking to pull a memory out from the pensieve, the one where Snape got pranked.

She then decided to relive that one and laughed heartily at watching Snape constantly sneeze during the Twins' potions' lesson, causing him to snort like an elephant every time he did so.

After satiating her desire for a little enjoyment, however, she turned her thoughts back to her plan.

Her next part where she had taken direct action after that had been ensuring that she injured herself so that she would find herself in the hospital wing at the same time as Harry, leading him to finally get to know her and lead to her having a date with him as well.

This was actually her scariest moment as she wasn't sure how she would actually do or how Harry would react to her, but it had gone rather well, mainly because she had seen that moment happen so many times before.

While this meeting was important first because it put her foot in the door so to speak when it came to developing a relationship between her and him it also put her in a future position for her to be able to influence the way things needed to go later on.

In addition, her conversation had slowed him down just enough for the girls that Harry had dates with to be calmed down by discussing things with Hermione first and also gave Hermione enough time to learn how each girl felt and to develop the idea that he should go with each of them to decide which he liked best.

Otherwise Harry would have just ended up going with Padma, leading to him never getting to know the other girls better as he needed to in order for him to ultimately develop a relationship and subsequent marriage to them.

This decision to go on multiple dates had then caused Harry to conclude that he needed a way to work out how he was going to do each date, leading him to go to the house kitchens for some food for the dinners...

Where of course he met Dobby, who was also extremely important to the future, and in this one, he wouldn't die saving Harry.

Dobby deserved a lot better than that, and who else would make her such tasty treats that she was still looking forward to having?

While Dobby also helped provide Harry with more time to work on the dates while Dobby prepared the food, he had already played a vital role in moving the conversations in several of Harry's dates, most notably the one with Hannah when Dobby had mistaken Harry for a male prostitute for hire, putting Harry in a situation of vulnerability that had put Hannah in a good mood and let her relax around Harry, leading her self esteem to drastically improve and change so much as a person.

Such changes as well as what she said in the newspaper article the next day had caused a dramatic outpouring of support from the school at large and improved his value among the female population at Hogwarts, especially the many girls he still had left to woo.

Yet that was getting ahead of herself since there was still plenty she had to do before then.

Rita Skeeter finding out about his dates would have happened anyway as well as her attempts to overhear the whole date, but she never would have learned just when or where those dates would be taking place had she not sent her an anonymous letter telling her...

This wasn't something she hadn't been happy about doing as it would cause Harry and the girls involved some additional grief but it was entirely necessary for her plan to work.

Besides it would only ultimately lead to Rita being fired and then later thrown in prison. It also helped Harry actually get to know Daphne, and Daphne as her future best friend and now confidant, she needed Daphne in the picture, particularly now as she presented now a difficult choice and situation for Harry that was necessary for the overall plan.

The next thing she had a direct involvement in was ensuring that she and Padma accompanied Harry and Daphne to the Daily Prophet so that the decision could be made not just to stop Rita but to start producing their own articles about his dates...

Which of course led to her, with her experience writing articles for her father's newspaper to even get a chance writing the articles, and acting incompetent enough in order to receive offers of help from both Daphne and Padma led to them working together and begin to form those friendships she had been craving for so long and again put her in a position to be able to continue to influence things.

One additional thing she did was steal Hermione's ancient rune homework out of her bookbag when she wasn't looking, causing Hermione to make Harry skip breakfast so that they could find it.

Since it was still another week before it was due and she made sure that it was returned later, she didn't feel too guilty doing this, particularly since it caused Harry not to find out about what was in the newspaper article until later, allowing him to find out gradually and get a decent explanation from Padma, which admittedly was in a broom closet and came with more than one kiss from more than one girl putting him in a better mood and encouraging him to agree with her.

So instead of getting upset and demanding they change what they wrote about in future articles, he decided it was a good idea, further allowing his appeal in the witch population to improve.

Of course throughout all of this she had been doing smaller things, including making use of her inability to stop blurting out the future by helping Harry, Daphne, Hermione, and Padma get slowly used to the idea of being in a harem without being alarmed by it by believing it could actually happen.

Next came her manipulation of Padma. Harry at that point had gotten fond enough of Padma to ask her to the Yule Ball but she had to make sure that didn't happen just yet.

While if she allowed that to happen Harry and Padma would ultimately end up together, it would only lead to their eventual deaths by falling into and drowning in a vat of chocolate.

Even though that would admittedly be her preferred way to go, it was far too early for her tastes...pun intended.

She wanted all the girls that she saw with Harry and particularly Daphne who would have ended up resenting and feuding a bit with Padma, effectively ending her chances to be with Harry in the process.

It then forced her to try and convince Padma to decline Harry's offer to the Yule Ball so that Daphne would get a fair chance and allow Harry to realize he had feelings for Daphne as well.

While there were several ways she could have done this, simply the most fun had been the use of a balloon sword.

The hilarity of it had caused Padma to tell Daphne about the experience and not consider it a legitimate concern. Had she made a strong and rational effort to convince Padma, Padma would never have told Daphne as she would have actually become somewhat concerned that Daphne just might manage to steal Harry away...

The ensuing conversation with her and Daphne had led Padma to feel bad enough to decide to reject Harry's offer so that Daphne could at least get a fair chance with Harry...which would lead to the predicament they were currently in now after Daphne had kissed him.

However that was still getting ahead of herself as after that rejection, Luna knew that Ron would be returning that day to school after his suspension and that Ron would try to hurt Harry, or more in particular his manhood, essentially ending his ability to have children and nixing any sex life.

A life without sex didn't particularly appeal to her. Having had many sex visions that were always thoroughly enjoyable to watch she had become a big believer in it and she wanted to eventually have Harry's babies.

That had led to ensuring that Harry received an oatmeal raisin cookie.

Since Harry didn't like that type of cookie she knew he wouldn't actually eat it, but instead leave it on his plate when he went to go talk to Padma, during which time Ron would return and steal Harry's seat and unknowingly eat the dosed cookie.

She had allowed the potion she had put inside the cookie to be just strong enough for Ron to faint while performing his spell but not finish it, allowing McGonagall who was listening in to have cause to once again punish Ron, but Harry would remain safe.

Ron then would once again be out of the picture and this was crucial having him out of the picture as having him back as Harry's friend would totally ruin her plan and a lot of other lives as well.

Over the course of her seeing visions, there were certain individuals whose bad actions far outweighed any good they might do and mostly made anything or anyone they were around worse. They were called a bad omen by some, but she preferred the term neekerbreeker as that was more fun to say.

Ron was a neekerbreeker.

However Ron provided the ensuing conversation with McGonagall who championed the importance of friendship.

This was yet another crucial point as in order for Harry to have an actual harem, he needed to develop strong friendships with all the girls first and they with each other. That was the only real way for that to be accomplished. Harry simply wasn't going to, nor most of the girls willing to, share him as a boyfriend at that point and wouldn't for awhile yet. Having them simply be a group of friends would make such a transition easier.

Ron's fight with Harry also caused Daphne to go over and see what was the matter, and provide an excuse for herself.

This had then allowed her to bring up her date with Harry and make it more just a group of friends, further developing their friendship and include Hermione in it.

While the girl was simply too nervous to confess her crush on Harry and Harry too closely putting Hermione in the friend zone for him to notice, this quasi date had provided just enough of an opportunity to find that Hermione was actually rather attractive, particularly after Daphne and Padma's help with her clothes and hair and also improved Hermione's self esteem and would help her finally tell him that she actually liked him...

Before that however, was one of her favorite parts of the plan when she had told Daphne about some of her plan and about being able to see the future.

Daphne was the first person who she had come right out with it and confessed she was psychic. While she needed Daphne for the plan to succeed, she also really wanted to have a confidant and she just knew that she and Daphne would become best friends, even sooner due to sharing her secret with her.

Even though Daphne couldn't know everything, there was a great deal she could still tell her and she had been practically bursting to do so.

Secret plans tended to be more fun when they were shared secretly with other people.

In addition, this caused Daphne to tell Padma that she should just accept Harry's offer to go to the Yule Ball and not to worry about her.

This had essentially caused Padma to become grateful and not worry so much about Harry being stolen away from her, leading to Padma going right back and encouraging Daphne to go on her date with Harry anyway.

This permission had also put Harry at ease while going on his date with Daphne, as before without Padma's actual encouragement to even go on the date he never would have relaxed enough around Daphne, causing Daphne to eventually kiss him...

Furthermore, Padma actually encouraging such a situation to happen would cause her to take partial blame for what happened on it, causing her to not be as angry or concerned with Harry as she would have been otherwise had it happened.

Of course it wouldn't have happened had they not had the right setting in going to Hogsmeade for their date, with Harry never willing to actually go and ask Dumbledore for permission had she not been able to blackmail him.

While some people questioned the rationality of her appearance, many things about her appearance including her spectrespecs were carefully done in order for the plan to succeed.

The same applied to her hair, as after letting it grow out, using magic to speed the process along, she had allowed it to grow long enough to cover most of her butt...and cause his hand to accidentally touch it.

That combined with the conversation she had had with Harry with Harry unknowingly saying some regrettable things led him right into her trap of telling him that she would tell Padma if he didn't ask Dumbledore.

Harry's conversation with Dumbledore was also important as Dumbledore would also play a key role in her plans, beginning with the permission he had given Harry and at least one of the things that Dumbledore had had Harry pick up for him would be valuable later on...

The only other thing she had done to manipulate Harry's date with Daphne had been what she had done with Millicent.

Knowing that Millicent was actually a secret sex goddess and would be a good friend to her and a part of Harry's harem, she arranged for Millicent to "accidentally" discover the hidden entrance of the passageway that led to Honeydukes in Hogsmeade.

Her natural curiosity to go and explore the tunnel and then Hogsmeade had led her to the clothing store in hopes of at least wistfully looking at dresses just for fun and imagine actually owning one...despite having no money for any.

It would have then been a dead end had she not arranged for one of the salespeople there to trip and spill coffee all over the mean manager, leading to her getting fired which would then cause her to decide to live out her eventually successful dream of making christmas decorations.

It then made a position open for Millicent, who got the job so easily because of the christmas rush and the thinking that her huge size would deter any would-be shoplifters by the ridiculous manager, who would be getting fired after the news article Daphne would be writing about him was published in the Daily Prophet tomorrow.

Millicent however had the job still at just the right time to be found working there by Harry and Daphne who had no doubt by now already got her a makeover and a new dress.

Harry would suddenly realize just how beautiful Millicent actually was and leave Millicent forever in Harry's debt, allowing the crush she already had on him to only increase.

There would be further reaching consequences because of that, but for right now, the most important thing was dealing with the kisses that Harry and Daphne had had and what she needed to do about it.

While she couldn't allow Harry to tell Padma about the kiss as that would ruin a great deal, she could do something else, and it was a doozy…

At that moment the machine finally got done working as it popped out a list of things soon to come.

As she looked over the updated list, she realized that what she was going to be doing next was actually a double doozy.

Hah hah, doozy, such a funny word, Luna thought.

Please Review! Or not...Luna already has a plan for what happens to those who don't. It begins with an orange basketball...


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Harry currently stood walking around just outside the castle, tramping through snow and hoping that the cold might somehow help to snap some sense into him.

So far however, it had only caused him to feel more like a snowman, minus the carrot nose and cool top hat.

Yet as he tried to decide what to do, he came to a few conclusions.

He had to tell Padma what had happened and soon, and he couldn't see Daphne anymore as she may be too much of a temptation for him.

Since he had had very little contact with Daphne before all this dating thing started he hoped that that wouldn't be too difficult.

However he knew he would see her in at least some of his classes and she would still be on his mind and quite honestly, he liked her, not just because she was a really good kisser, but someone that he considered really fun to be around and spend time with.

The same held true for Padma or really any of the girls that he had gone on dates with yet he couldn't just date all of them and those who got left out he'd be required to not spend as much time with.

Was that really fair?

This past week had been a real eye opener for him as he realized that he actually enjoyed spending time with other people besides Ron and Hermione and more in particular girls.

The boys that he did know, particularly in his dorm room he managed to get along with, but he couldn't really consider them to be potential good friend material. They just had different interests than he did, that's all...

For some reason he just felt like he got along better with girls.

Maybe it was the lack of belching and farting contests he was usually subjected to or the fact that he felt he could have a real conversation with girls and even engage in rather witty and funny wordplay with some of them beyond what the boys considered funny: feces and once again farting.

Hermione of course had always accused them of being immature, and now he could see that she was probably right.

After deciding that freezing his toes off wasn't doing himself any good, he decided to head to the owlery and check on Hedwig as being around her always somehow managed to help calm him down.

The fact that the owlery was also heated was an added bonus.

When he got inside however, he found that he wasn't the only one in there.

"Oh hello Harry," Fleur greeted him when she saw him.

"Hello Fleur, what brings you out here in the cold at night?" He asked her.

"I'm here for the owl treats," She claimed jokingly, "mouse flavored is my favorite."

"Well I've always said the French have some odd tastes," He replied.

She laughed and said, "No, actually I'm checking on my owl."

"Which is yours?" He asked.

She pointed to a totally white owl that was the same type as Hedwig.

"Well that's my owl Hedwig," He announced as he pointed at his own owl

In response, Hedwig swooped down at the mention of her name and came to rest on the floor next to him.

"So your owl is the little heartbreaker," Fleur said, "my owl Jacques is usually the one that gets all of the interest from other owls, and he usually has to beat them back with a talon, but your owl has been beating back every advance he makes on her. Personally I think she's just playing hard to get."

"Hedwig will do that," He agreed, "lucky bird."

Hedwig chirped in agreement on the floor.

"So what about you? How did things go with Padma?" Fleur asked.

Since his last conversation with Fleur had been on his date with her, this was a rather valid question.

He sighed and said, "It went well."

"You don't look like it went well," Fleur observed.

"Let's just say that Jacques isn't the only one having trouble beating the ladies back," Harry informed her.

"This sounds like I'm about to hear an interesting story," Fleur commented, now seeming super interested.

"Interesting would be the right word," He agreed.

While he was admittedly a little hesitant to confess such a problem to someone else, Fleur had helped him a lot before with choosing which girl, and he was hopeful that she might do so again.

It was worth a shot.

So he told her, beginning with his asking Padma to the Yule Ball, through the date he had just had with Daphne and then to now.

We had finished, he asked, "I think it would be helpful if you could give me some advice."

"Well since I suppose I helped get you into this mess perhaps I shouldn't," Fleur answered.

"I would say that you gave great advice the first time, which is why I am hopeful you can do so again," Harry observed.

"Yes, I am the all seeing Fleur Delacour, Triwizard Champion, Veela, and an expert on relationships," She said, "admittedly you probably have more dating experience than I do by now."

"Come on Fleur," He urged teasingly, "if you can't help me, my next choice will have to be Hedwig for advice."

Hedwig gave a chirp of indignance as if to say that of course she gave good advice.

It often amazed him just how smart wizard owls were, although he doubted even Hedwig could help him out with his love life.

"What I can't help thinking is that you actually remind me a lot of myself," Fleur commented.

"In what way? Is it because I look too much like a beautiful woman or I act too French?" He asked.

"Yep, you look so much like a girl, it's uncanny, I keep looking at your chest to see if you have a pair of boobs on it," She replied, now staring obviously at his chest.

"Don't worry, I'll still claim to be a guy so that you can stare at it. Guys usually don't complain when they have their chests stared at," Harry pointed out.

"Then I should probably point out that I am in fact a girl and I do have a right to complain," She reminded him.

"Sorry," He apologized.

"Don't worry about it, Harry, I was only joking, you're actually a lot better about it than most guys, especially considering you aren't gay," She said.

"So how do I remind you of yourself?" He asked, getting back to their more serious conversation.

While joking around helped him feel more at ease, he also knew he needed to be serious for awhile, which didn't mean he should start acting like his godfather.

There he went again with another joke...

"I was going to say that like me you seem to get a lot of attention from the opposite gender. It's not something you can really blame them for, but it still happens and because of that any relationships or possible friendships get messed up. So I think I'll tell you what I would really like personally," Fleur told him, "when I was younger and just going through puberty I suddenly started getting a lot of attention from boys. At first I was flattered as I rather liked some of them, but I soon got annoyed with it. I couldn't seem to have a conversation with them because they would just get tongue tied and not know what to say to me and instead just stare at me the whole time. It was my mother who actually gave me good advice and while it applies to veela, I think it can also apply to you. She told me that the best thing I could do was find someone that I could be just friends with first and if I did go on dates with them, not be exclusive with them. This would allow me to really get to know them and know if they truly liked me for me, or just because of how attractive I was. She said I shouldn't start a real relationship until I knew this."

"Okay, well I'm pretty sure that Padma and Daphne at least like me for me already," He commented.

"I'm not finished yet Harry," She reminded him, "the thing is you're still young and only 14. Most 14 year olds are at least tempted to be in serious relationships but feel like they need to be more like adults and be exclusive with someone. The reality is however any relationships you might have at 14 probably aren't going to last and you probably aren't going to end up marrying that person.

You might feel like you have to choose right now who you want to be with, but that just isn't the case and you still have plenty of time to get to know other girls and decide who you ultimately choose to marry.

I think going on all of those dates might have been quite beneficial to you in realizing that there are plenty of fish in the sea and help you realize what you like and don't like in a girl.

I helped you choose just Padma earlier because I wanted you to have at least one strong relationship, but I think I may have given you the wrong advice. What I'm saying is that you shouldn't feel obligated to be with just one girl from now on."

"How do you think Padma might take that or some of the other girls if I said I didn't want a serious relationship?" He asked.

"Well with Padma you never actually decided to be exclusive did you, you just planned to go to the Yule Ball together right?" She pointed out.

"Yes, although I suppose that might have been implied," He answered.

"I can't tell you what to do, whether to be exclusive with Padma, just date around, or just try to be friends with everyone, but I think it's important to realize that a girl you want to ultimately be with should be able to at least understand. They don't have to be happy about it, but at least be able to understand."

He nodded. It all seemed like good advice.

"You know, I'm not sure what I'm going to do, but I have to thank you for helping me so much. You're a really good friend," He admitted.

"Wow Harry, being friends, that's a really big step, I don't know if I can handle that kind of pressure, are you sure?" She teased.

"You're right, how about we start off as enemies and work our way up from there?" He teased right back.

"Well we are competing against each other from different schools, locked in a bitter rivalry in a potentially deadly competition. It may be wise to stay clear of me unless you want to wind up in a ditch somewhere," She countered.

"You're right, I should go put you on my growing list of enemies right now, right after Voldemort, death eaters, Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, Parkinson, doctors who say "this won't hurt a bit," cat people who feed and dress their pets better than I get fed and dress, blast ended skrewts, three headed dogs, brussel sprouts, liver, and whoever invented the song It's a small world after all."

"Wow Harry, it looks like your list of enemies is already full, are you sure you can fit me onto that list?" Fleur replied.

"I suppose you're right and I have too many acquaintances and people I just know and are neutral towards as well. That would mean you have to be my friend if you think you can handle that," He informed her.

She pretended to sigh and said, "I'll just have to find someway to manage I guess, friends then."

"I can just imagine the things we'll end up doing. Getting into mischief by starting food fights, staying up late to tell scary stories that aren't even scary until 3 in the morning on a school night, having belching contests, seeing how many marshmallows we can stuff into our mouths, the sky's the limit."

"Yeah because that's what all friends do," She said somewhat sarcastically.

"That's what the boys in my dorm do," He pointed out.

"I would hope you don't expect me to do any of those things," She responded.

"I wouldn't but I wonder if you might have any better ideas," He asked.

She seemed to think a moment before answering.

"I suppose if you'd like, you can come to a party I'm having tomorrow over in the school's guest quarters, bring whoever you'd like...Padma, Daphne, Hermione, that weird girl with the radish earrings, all of them or whoever else you feel like bringing," Fleur invited.

"Sounds like fun," He agreed, "I should be able to make it."

TOOMANYTOOMANY

After he finished with Fleur and having evidently made a new friend, he went back inside the castle and try and figure things out some more.

While Fleur had given him a new perspective on things, he knew that Padma wouldn't be too happy in any case and he didn't want to lose her.

As lost as he was in his thoughts, he failed to notice someone standing along an unlit section of wall.

"Sorry," He apologized.

"Why don't you watch where you're going?" The person asked sounding upset.

As they got into the light lit by a torch along the wall, he realized that it was Pansy Parkinson, widely considered by Ron to be the worst girl in all of Hogwarts, basically for being mean and always fawning over Draco Malfoy.

"I couldn't see you," He told her.

He watched her and realized however that her cheeks were all blotchy and wet with tears.

She had evidently been crying.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

"I'm fine, just go away Potter," She told him as she tried to wipe tears off her face.

"If that's what you want," He said, "although if you need help, just let me know."

"Why should you care about me?" She asked accusingly.

It was a good point. He had in fact only 10 minutes ago listed her under his enemies list.

"I don't like to see a girl crying," He admitted.

She seemed to study him more closely trying to see if he was being genuine before asking, "Is it really true what they say about you in the papers?"

"Daphne, Padma, and Luna somewhat embellished it, but it's mostly true," He confessed.

"Daphne really does like you for some reason, so I figured she was just biased.," Pansy pointed out as she finished wiping her face.

"Nope, I'm actually just an attention seeking, bigheaded scarhead," He answered.

"Malfoy is the only one stupid enough to actually believe that," She told him.

He blinked, surprised that she would actually insult Malfoy like that. She had always seemed like his biggest female fan.

"Did I just hear you call Malfoy stupid? The world must be ending," He said.

A ghost of a smile appeared on her face as she commented, "Let's just say I'm not really Draco's number one fan right now."

"Oh good, there's an opening for me then," Harry jokingly replied.

She looked like she wanted to laugh, but managed to hold it in, "Well if you must know he just broke up with me."

Having just made such a confession she looked back at him, almost expecting him to make one of his jokes.

He also knew he couldn't make one. He may not actually care for Draco and question the sanity of anyone willing to date him, but breakups he was sure must be hard for anyone.

"I'm sorry," He said simply, not able to think of anything else to say.

"It's okay," She replied, "he's a loser anyway, I'm not even sure why I'm crying since I'm probably better off without him."

The fact that she probably was was something he had to agree with.

She seemed to realize that she was being overly emotional in front of him and then put on a brave face as if to prove that didn't actually bother her as much.

He shifted his feet a bit and then asked, "May I ask why you keeping sticking with him if you think that way?"

She sighed and said, "Well in case you haven't noticed I don't exactly get any other attention from guys. I know they call me Pug-faced Parkinson behind my back."

"I think pugs are cute personally," Harry replied, saying the first thing that popped into his head.

She looked at him funny and asked, "Did you just call me cute?"

He laughed realizing what he had really said and replied, "I suppose I did in a way."

"Don't you have like a million fangirls who might be rather jealous?" She reminded him.

From what he could tell, him calling her cute had definitely cheered her up a lot more than he had intended. At least she wasn't crying anymore and seemed to actually be enjoying their conversation right now.

"Ah, they'll just have to deal with it," He said, "however you don't really look like a pug. I think that rumor got started just because of the face you keep making."

She pulled the ugly face that she had by now become infamous for, the one that made her look like she had just seen something totally gross such as Ron's toenail collection.

Actually he couldn't blame her for making a face at seeing that.

"Like that?" She asked.

"Yes, like that," He agreed, laughing a bit.

She then actually smiled replacing her nasty face with one that actually made her seem as he thought about it...well pretty. Not drop dead gorgeous or anything, but even that realization was a big thing for a girl that he would have considered ugly both on the inside and out until now.

"You know, you don't have to be so nice to me, it's actually kind of weird," She said.

"I try to be nice to people, some just make it hard such as Malfoy," He answered, letting himself grin.

"I can see why Daphne likes you so much," Pansy commented, "I usually get pretty mixed views concerning you, depending on where I get it from, Draco or Daphne."

"I don't even get why Daphne likes me so much, Draco at least I can understand," He admitted.

"Since you're hot," Pansy told him.

"Okay, now Pansy Parkinson thinks I'm hot, can this day get any weirder?" He said to himself aloud.

"No, that's what Daphne thinks," Pansy reminded him, "personally I can't see it, you're too scrawny and pale for my tastes."

"Draco is more scrawny and pale than I am," Harry pointed out.

"Exactly my point," She said.

"Well I suppose I should consider myself to be fortunate, it seems I've finally found a girl who doesn't actually like me," He said.

"There's that big headed ego I was looking for," She answered, sounding vindicated.

"Not if it's the truth," Harry told her, "I keep getting all of this attention from girls who all seem to like me and I just don't know what to do with it all."

"Now who's the nasty one. You come finding out I just got rejected by the one guy who can stand me and then brag about how you are wanted by too many girls," She responded.

"Ooh okay, that was a little harsh," He admitted, feeling somewhat guilty, "it's just that I'm finding I like spending time with a lot of girls, not just one by many different ones and ones I would never have expected such as Daphne."

Wow, he was being very honest today in confessing his problems. Fleur was one thing, but Pansy?

He had definitely not been intending to do that.

"So how did your date with her go anyway?" Pansy asked.

"It went well," He said, trying to hide what had really happened.

She however wasn't fooled.

"Let me guess, she kissed you," Pansy guessed.

"How did you know?" He asked.

"I knew she wouldn't be able to resist," Pansy claimed, "she's been wanting to kiss you for ages and pass up an opportunity like that? I even bet Tracey a galleon she'd do it."

"Great, now everyone is going to know," He said, now somewhat worried.

"Oh don't worry, I would have managed to wrangle it out of Daphne eventually anyway. Yet this gives me an opportunity to find out your side of it. So how was it?"

"All right, I'll tell you if you agree not to tell anyone else," He told her.

"Deal," She quickly agreed.

"Okay, well it was good," He began.

"Just good?" She asked.

"All right, it was absolutely fantastic," He confessed, "fantastic enough that we kissed again."

She rubbed her palms in relish and said, "Ooh hoo, Daphne probably loved that but Padma is going to be so mad!"

Great now she was enjoying his future misery.

"Thanks, not like I didn't already know that," He commented.

"Okay, maybe I was being a bit spiteful, but you can't really blame me if I'm somewhat hoping that Padma dumps you and you end up with Daphne," Pansy replied.

No, he couldn't really blame her for that as Daphne was her friend.

"I think if it becomes an issue with Padma I can just tell her that I'll avoid Daphne for awhile so she doesn't worry," He told her.

Pansy looked very upset at that as she said, "I really don't think that avoiding Daphne is a good idea either."

"Why?" He asked.

"You may not have realized it, but you're totally Daphne's hero," Pansy explained, "she used to have a reputation for not being that nice of a person either, she was even known as the Ice Queen."

"I'm aware of it, but she certainly doesn't act that way now," He said.

"That's because when she started liking you, she figured that she needed to start acting nicer so that you might actually notice her and like her more. People do crazy things for people they like and Daphne is no different. Ever since then she's actually been a lot nicer, a lot more fun to be around, and she is genuinely a lot happier," Pansy stated.

"I had no idea," He confessed.

"I don't know why you can have such an affect on people, it's just what you do I guess. It can bring out the worst and the best in people," She said, "I have to admit I'm kind of worried about what that might do to Daphne. I mean she seemed okay with being just friends but going back to basically ignoring her would probably hurt her a great deal."

He hadn't considered that, at least not fully, being more concerned with how Padma might react.

"I'll definitely think about that, I guess I was just worried she might be too much of a temptation for me, and I didn't want to worry Padma," He answered.

"I just don't want anyone to get hurt, but I'd say odds are you're going to hurt someone no matter what," She reminded him.

"I'll figure something out," He told her, trying to sound much more confident than he really was.

"Well I wish you better luck than I have," She said.

Thanks," He responded.

He honestly felt like he may have misjudged Pansy. It could very well be that she just simply didn't have a lot of self confidence in herself and nobody was willing to give her a chance.

At that moment, he had an idea. It seemed kind of crazy, but he was in the mood to be trying crazy things.

"I just got invited a party tomorrow night actually and I was told I could bring anyone I'd like, I was wondering if you might like to go with me to it?" He asked her.

She looked stunned before pointing out, "Something tells me you've gotten way too used to asking girls out if you seriously just did that."

"Yeah because asking girls out is the easiest thing in the world for a 14 year old boy to do," He said sarcastically, "no, I'm not talking like that, more just as a friend...or just acquaintance. I might invite a few other girls as well such as Padma or Hermione. I figure it might help you meet other people and hopefully have a good time."

He wanted to establish that in case she thought otherwise.

As nice as he was being, dating Pansy Parkinson was not something even he was crazy enough to do.

It seemed like an excellent idea as there was no obligation attached and he wasn't actually pairing up with her.

"I'll think about it," She finally said.

"The party is over in the guest quarters' Room 313, the password is Santa Claus when you need to get in," He informed her.

Feeling like he had done enough, he mumbled a goodbye to her and then hurried off again in search of Padma.

TOOMANYTOOMANY

Harry finally succeeded in locating Padma in the library.

"Hey can I talk to you privately?" He asked her.

He could feel his heart racing, his palms all sweaty as he addressed her, admittedly fearing the worst.

She nodded and they went to go find an empty classroom nearby.

Once they were alone, he decided to come right out with it.

"On my date with Daphne...um...she kissed me and I kissed her back," He admitted.

He then stood there to study her reaction.

She blinked and then said, "Okay."

"Okay? All you have to say is okay?" He queried, "I just kissed another girl. Aren't you mad?"

"Do you want me to be?" Padma asked, still not sounding really upset.

That seemed to deflate him a bit.

"Well no," He admitted.

"Okay then, well if you really want to know how I feel it's this: I know you've kissed plenty of girls over the past week and I couldn't be mad about that because they liked you and you liked them and you were on a date. I'm pretty sure people kiss on dates," Padma answered.

"I wasn't really dating you then during those dates," He pointed out.

"We never actually discussed if we were actually a couple, even though we definitely hinted at it, just that you were going with me to the Yule Ball," She reminded him.

"I did think of that," He admitted, "I just figured you might see things differently or hurt our chances of becoming a couple."

"How so? I'm the one who encouraged you to go on the date with Daphne in the first place and I suspected she might end up kissing you. You liking it or kissing her back I also can't blame you for," Padma replied, "however the fact that you apparently worried so much about me and my relationship with you and decided to tell me actually gives me a lot of comfort."

Wow, this was actually going a lot better than he thought.

"The thing is I can tell you want something more than simply going to the Yule Ball together and I'm worried I might well...still be attracted to other girls. I've been finding that I actually like a lot of the girls I've dated, not just as dates, but as friends. The thing is I don't know if me or them can manage to stay just friends," Harry answered.

"I see," She responded, seeming to take in what he said, "well I suppose that would be a problem for me. I really like you Harry and I'd really like to be in a relationship with you. However I also have to put myself in the shoes of the other girls. If I couldn't have you as a boyfriend, I'd want to be just friends or just casually date you if I were them and maybe that's an option for us as well."

"Casually date?" He asked.

"It's where we go on dates with each other but we are free to date other people as well," Padma explained.

"I see, well that sounds like a really good option to me, I really like you and I'd really like to go on more dates with you but I think I'd like to go on dates again with some of the other girls but not have a serious relationship with any of them. I would of course want to make sure you were okay with it," He said.

"Quite honestly, I probably would never have entertained the idea. I figured you were the one for me and you would be my boyfriend and that was what I wanted. Then I got a letter from my mother just now," Padma confessed.

"I'm guessing it wasn't just a reminder to brush your teeth everyday," He said.

"Actually it was about dating and relationships," She answered, "apparently she's been reading the articles we've been writing in the Daily Prophet and more particularly she somehow learned about my connection to you. She actually advised that I not rush into any serious relationships at my young age, how I should just casually date, how it would help me foster better friendships, blah blah blah, etc."

"Sounds awfully boring," He commented.

"Oh, that's usually how parents are, it's just us as teenagers we don't usually listen to them," Padma replied.

"That's the one good thing about being an orphan," Harry observed, "whenever a teenager makes a mistake they can only blame themselves for not listening to their parents, whenever I make a mistake, it's because I didn't know any better. If I wore my underwear for 3 days straight, or my clothes didn't match, or I don't eat any vegetables, it's not my fault, I didn't know any better."

She laughed and said, "Do I need to be your replacement mommy and help teach you?"

"Don't worry I have Hermione to point all those things out to me," He answered.

"Well getting back to what my mom said, I was just going to ignore it, but then you end up showing up soon after with your little story and now it looks like I might actually need to listen to her," She told him, "it doesn't mean I don't want to date you, but I also don't want to hold you back. I know you've already done a lot of good for many girls in dating them including me and I would hate to stop you from doing that even if it means I'm not seriously dating you."

"Wow, I don't know who is more amazing, your mom for writing a letter and giving advice you actually listened to or you for being so understanding and accepting," He commented.

"That would be me," She insisted.

"I'd kiss you right now, but under the circumstances..." He said.

"Just casually dating you doesn't mean no kisses," Padma answered, pretending to pout.

He grinned and kissed her before saying, "I was hoping you would say that."

Author's Note: Finally got this one done...blah blah blah, lots of author stuff you aren't really reading because you just want to read the story...Okay well if you are still reading this, a few things to point out. Really the best and most believable way for Harry to develop a harem is actually for him to casually date many different girls or simply be their friend. Since this is actually what young teenagers are often advised to do anyway this works out rather well. I could explain why, but would simply take too long and I doubt too many of you would even care.

The definition of casually dating varies a bit depending on the culture, but in this case it's the one I personally am most familiar with where the couple make it plain they are attracted to one another and want to continue going on dates, but are also free to go on dates with other people as long as they aren't seriously dating anyone else.

Under this setting, this allows the couple to act towards one another beyond being merely friends and get to know each other and decide just how much they do like each other, but without the pressure, exclusivity, and complications that come with a more serious relationship.

Of course, with the continual right circumstances and a little help from a certain crazy psychic, this can eventually turn into a harem.


End file.
